Li Xiuzhe, President Of Asia Pacific Region, Talks About The Development Of HUGO BOSS

HUGO BOSS hit a sales record in 2011, and sales worldwide increased by 19%.

Under the leadership of the Asia Pacific president and CEO, the Asia Pacific region's performance growth figures are also extraordinarily bright, reaching 34%. In the Greater China region, it has achieved an unprecedented high growth rate of 57%, leaving the US and Europe far behind.

Although this year's growth rate has slowed down, HUGO BOSS still achieved an impressive growth of 22% in the first quarter.

At that rate, his ambitious plan has increased the turnover in the Asia Pacific region from 10% in 2010 to 21% in 2015 - just around the corner.

Of course, Li Xiuzhe is more aware that in the economic depression, in the face of such a unique cultural tradition in the Greater China market, it is not enough to maintain long-term high growth only by expanding the scale of 20 new stores every year.

On the basis of understanding the local market, HUGO BOSS must continue to carry out systematic innovation to meet the high expectations of Chinese consumers for luxury goods.

From franchising to brand direct operation

After nearly 20 years of development, we hope that we can directly run our own brand stores and establish our own sales network.

As a brand maker, I believe that if we can manage our own outlets, we can establish a better connection between us and consumers.

Reporter: in order to achieve new growth, what are the future changes of HUGO BOSS's strategy for the Chinese market? What position does China occupy in the market layout of HUGO BOSS?

Li Xiuzhe: today, the Asia Pacific region has become an important part of our global market, which accounts for about 15% of our total global sales.

Our plan is to increase this share to 21% in the next 4 years.

Among these, China is the most important market.

Of course, I refer to the Greater China region, including Hongkong and Macao.

In this sense, China has become the third largest market in the world, closely following Europe and the United States.

In many parts of the world, HUGO BOSS has a long history of operation.

For example, we have had a history of 30 years in the Hongkong market.

We entered the mainland of China in 1994 and will soon enter the twentieth year.

We are also the first luxury brands to enter the mainland of China. Such a long history can help us better understand the Chinese market and help us maintain long-term growth in the future.

When it comes to the change of business strategy, we hope to develop more direct stores in the future.

When HUGO BOSS first entered China, it depended on franchising partners.

After nearly 20 years of development, we hope that we can directly run our own brand stores and establish our own sales network.

We do this in order to get closer to Chinese consumers and better understand Chinese consumers.

As a brand maker, I believe that if we can manage our own outlets, we can establish a better connection between us and consumers.

Reporter: what does HUGO BOSS know about the Chinese market? Especially what are the unique characteristics of Chinese consumer behavior compared with other markets?

Li Xiuzhe: Chinese consumers are different from those in Europe and the United States. They are willing to spend more money on luxury goods, have stronger desire to consume, and expect more returns. For example, they have higher expectations for unique shopping experience, better shopping environment, excellent product quality and excellent service.

These characteristics are very evident in Chinese consumers.

In response to the expectations of Chinese consumers, we have recently begun redesigning our store.

For example, if you take a look at our new flagship store across the China Hotel in Beijing, you will find that we have created a more luxurious shopping environment for consumers, which will provide our customers with more unique features.

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At the same time, we have retraining our employees, because high quality services are more important than beautiful stores and high quality products.

This is why we constantly train our employees to play a very important role in our company strategy.

In addition, for very picky customers, though we already have the top luxury BOSS Selection product line, and this line is now very successful.

At the beginning of next year, we will further launch our own private custom service.

Therefore, even for those very picky consumers, we also hope that we can always exceed their expectations and move ahead of their demands.

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Reporter: what kind of brand image does HUGO BOSS want to convey to Chinese consumers?

Li Xiuzhe: we will cooperate with celebrities in China to display the brand image. This is the first time in the history of HUGOBOSS.

We do not choose celebrities from Europe and America. We are very honored to invite them.

As the image ambassador of our high-end luxury brand "BOSSSelection", this also shows the importance of the Chinese market.

For Chinese consumers, the quality of our products is of course quality. Besides, we also want our brand to be very fashionable and modern.

HUGO BOSS, as a German brand, is of course the first quality.

At the same time, we hope to bring a very fashionable feeling to our costumes.

In the field of luxury, compared with our competitors, we hope that HUGO BOSS will convey to consumers a sense of fashion, brand new and continuous self innovation, rather than sticking to the old conservative image.

We continue our high-end luxury series, offering customized services, constantly holding fashion shows, and opening flagship stores in important sections of important cities in China, in order to convey this feeling to the Chinese market.

Reporter: what is the experience of opening up an emerging market? What successes can be copied directly? What is the key to success in emerging markets?

Li Xiuzhe: the key is to try to understand the local market.

We do business in 120 countries in the world, but the culture of every country is different. We must balance the global fashion taste, but at the same time we should take care of the regional cultural differences.

The consumption habits of countries are very different. For example, Chinese consumers and Japanese and Korean consumers are different in Asia, but there are great differences in consumption behavior. Ignoring these differences is very unwise for brand operators.

In a sense, our job is to find out the differences between different markets and make targeted responses.

For example, the social media in China is very different from the west, so we use micro-blog and other social media to do marketing in China. This is also one of the uniqueness of the Chinese market.

De germaning

Our design is not very Germanic, which is different from other French style or Italy style.

We want to convey the sense of modernity and satisfy the fashion demand of global customers.

Reporter: German manufacturing has a good reputation. What are the German brand spirits in HUGOBOSS?

Li Xiuzhe: HUGO BOSS and others

The same is all about improving quality. This is a characteristic of German brand. No matter which industry, German brand demands itself according to the highest quality requirement.

In addition, I can say that HUGOBOSS is a fashion brand with European cultural heritage, because although we are in accordance with the requirements of quality in Germany, our creativity and brand impact come from different regions. For example, our main creation team will gather inspiration all over the world.

Therefore, our roots from Germany ensure the quality of our products. At the same time, we consider ourselves to be an international brand that is deeply influenced by European cultural traditions.

This positioning is also reflected in our product design. As I mentioned before, we believe that our interpretation of fashion is very avant-garde and very complex. At the same time, as a luxury brand, we have high quality requirements, whether through products, or through retail stores, or through more detailed product display, we all want to convey such information to customers.

All of these make us different from other brands.

Therefore, our design is not very Germanic, which is different from other French style or Italy style.

We want to convey the sense of modernity and satisfy the fashion demand of global customers. This may be one of the reasons for our success.

Reporter: what mechanism do you think can guarantee continuous lead?

Li Xiuzhe: if a brand wants to stay ahead, it must be constantly innovating and constantly surpassing itself.

The innovation mentioned here not only includes products, but should be reflected in almost all fields, including the marketing innovation I just mentioned.

For example, HUGO BOSS put the biggest fashion show this year in Beijing instead of the traditional fashion capital of New York, Milan or Paris.

As I mentioned before, we first invited local stars in the history of the company, Mr. Zhou Runfa as the brand endorser.

Besides, we have made full use of social networking, and this is a live broadcast of Beijing fashion show with 3D network.

So we will innovate in many areas of business, whether in the field of IT or in the field of logistics.

In the past 12 months, we have invested a lot of money in the construction of logistics system.

For example, in Shanghai and Hongkong, we will have a new storage base. We are also the first fashion company to use SAP system in retail stores.

So, though the product is very important, if we want to maintain the leading position in the industry, we must attach importance to other fields, such as logistics, IT and marketing. You must always step ahead of other brands, not only in product innovation, but also in other areas.

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Reporter: what is the biggest difficulty that HUGO BOSS may face in the foreseeable future?

Li Xiuzhe: we have been operating in the Asia Pacific region for 30 years, and have been in China for nearly 20 years. But such a long history should not become our capital of complacency.

Because many brands have found that China will be an important market in the future, they are entering China or will soon enter China, so it is certain that the competition of fashion industry in China will become more and more intense.

Reporter: what is your personal management style? How do you get along with HUGO BOSS and your employees?

Li Xiuzhe: I always tell my employees that although they are just employees, I very much hope that they can regard HUGO BOSS as their own business because everyone will make decisions in daily business. If we can regard the company as our own, we will not be able to work on such a basis.

In addition, HUGO BOSS has a dynamic management system with an open and interactive mechanism. Because today's business environment is changing very fast, we must rely on teamwork to respond in a timely manner. In this case, open management may be the secret of our success.

Our company needs to constantly improve itself. If employees can make constructive suggestions to keep our company moving forward, we are very welcome.

Li Xiuzhe resume

HUGO BOSS Asia Pacific president and Chief Executive Officer

2001 to 2005

HUGO BOSS Business Development Supervisor

2005 to 2006

Brand director, responsible for HUGO brand.

2006 to 2008

The director of international sales is responsible for business development and retail distribution in foreign markets, responsible for the distribution market in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Austria.

2009 to 2010

Managing director, HUGO BOSS, central and South American markets.

2011 to date

President and chief executive officer of Asia Pacific Region