Interview With Wang Xiangsheng, President Of IFB International Fashion Brand Development Management Center

Nowadays, many agents have registered themselves.

To enter a department store, can such actions turn the tide and bring new business opportunities to dealers? Can the Department Store exert itself to its own brand, can it break the curse of thousand stores? What should we pay attention to when developing its own brand? What is the future of its own brand? Therefore, Wang Xiangsheng, an expert in brand marketing management, has been analyzing the mystery for readers.

At present, the survival of agents is like "sandwich biscuits", one is upstream manufacturers, the other is downstream retailers.

Upstream manufacturers and downstream retailers continue to squeeze in the middle profit zone. The phenomenon of agents' restriction is becoming more and more obvious, and the status of rivers and lakes is becoming more and more embarrassed.

Nowadays, many agents have registered themselves.

To enter a department store, can such actions turn the tide and bring new business opportunities to dealers? Can the Department Store exert itself to its own brand, can it break the curse of thousand stores? What should we pay attention to when developing its own brand? What is the future of its own brand? Therefore, Wang Xiangsheng, an expert in brand marketing management, has been analyzing the mystery for readers.

Character introduction

Wang Xiangsheng: President of Midea, brand marketing management and President of IFB international fashion brand development management center. He has more than 10 years experience in brand planning, chain building and channel operation at home and abroad.

We have been working on brand building and management, marketing management research and training for a long time.

It has been a brand consultant for the enterprises of Song Li Si, European time force, Providence, Ordos, riddle and so on.

Private brand perfume is poisonous.

AC Nielsen Co has released the global manager report: the power of private brand. It shows that the private brand continues to steadily increase its global market share. In the past two years, the development of private brand launched by Chinese apparel agents is also very fast. Obviously, its own brand has become a wave that can not be ignored.

Wang Xiangsheng analyzed the reasons, first of all, the financial factors. With the development of the industry, excellent agents have accumulated for many years in the channel and have certain economic foundation. They want to be an investor. Secondly, the market factor. If they only act as an agent, there are limitations in their development. They can only operate in provinces and cities.

If we want to open the national market, we need to have its own brand to do it; again, it is objective factors, and objective factors are divided into active and passive factors.

From the perspective of active factors, the brand will gradually be enlarged and the trademark agency right will be recovered, which is obviously very unfavorable to the agents.

From passive factors, even if the brand does not reclaim the agency, with the maturity of the development, the requirements of the brand will be more and more stringent, and the brand task will double every year, and the competition will become fiercer.

Now these two situations often happen, and when agents are generally insecure, they have to try to find another way to develop their own brands to counter some of the requirements of the agent brand.

However, the fact that the clothing agents have registered their own brands is not satisfactory. There are few enterprises that are famous for the formation of well-known brands.

Wang Xiangsheng believes that there are four factors leading to the embarrassment now:

The first point is that the operation time is short, and the time for domestic agents to run their own brands is short. However, it has only arisen in the past one or two years. The cycle of building a brand 10 years ago is relatively short. But nowadays, a brand can only be built in 3~5 years, and the short time is not enough to build a brand.

The second point is geographical limitations. In the past, clothing brands in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Shanghai began to locate in the whole country.

Now the agent's own brand development is limited to the local market, so it is difficult to bring influence to the whole country, and it is also very difficult to enter the department stores of other provinces and cities.

The third point is that agents underestimate the difficulty of their own brands and imagine the field too simply.

It is believed that there is a corresponding brand with the market and the source of goods, lacking the professional knowledge of pre Market Research and brand operation, and not realizing the pformation of roles.

And the role of agents to operate their own brands, take it for granted that others can sell themselves will certainly be able to sell.

As a matter of fact, operating brand and agent brand are two different fields. We must introduce knowledge such as category management, brand management and so on, and only grow into a brand operator can be competent.

The fourth point is that there is an error in the concept of agents. Pure brand enterprises will first consider popularity and invest heavily in publicity and promotion. Generally, they do not pay attention to the propaganda of their own brands, and their resources are seldom invested. This leads to the persistent downturn of their brand awareness and the further development and expansion of their own brands.

The agent should first understand the concept of "fame and fortune", and make the brand famous and influential.

How can agents create a successful private brand?

"First of all, we can not simply pursue brand profits," Wang Xiangsheng said. "If I were an agent in Shandong Province, I used to make an agent every year, making a profit of 1 million yuan every year. Now I am making my own brand, there is no intermediate purchase link, but this alone can not guarantee the increase of profits. Too much emphasis on profits is easy to ignore the problem of brand image, leading to poor brand awareness and short life expectancy.

In the products that are active in the regional market, we can hardly see the shadow of our own brand. "

"Making brand must be psychologically prepared. One is long-term investment, and the period of withdrawal of funds from franchisees and agents is relatively short.

The second is the early stage plan, positioning the private brand in advance, the demands of consumer groups, the price and grade of products.

Some areas are suitable for the market, but they are not necessarily suitable for making brands, so we must have a systematic plan ahead of time to ensure that the products will be loved by the market.

Wang Xiangsheng continues to introduce.

"Agents need to pay special attention to making their own brands.

Wang Xiangsheng reminded agents, "pay attention to the relationship between the agent brand and its own brand, avoid conflict and take the wrong route.

For example, the agent brand positioning is in the middle and high grade, and the private brand takes the middle and low grade route, and differentiated operation.

When the agent brand goes to the store, its own brand will be circulated; while keeping its own brand, keeping the brand's synchronous growth at the same time, not occupying the market share of the agent brand, and only squeezed the market share of the competitive brand, can avoid the internal conflict between the agent brand and its own brand.

Today, more than 95% of the private brands in the market are playing low-end brands, and most of them choose to go through the circulation market, because agents do not want to spend efforts to cultivate brands. A private brand must earn money for agents from the first day of market entry.

Although the status of low end is easy to operate in advance, capital investment is relatively small.

But the brand lacks the premium space, the added value is limited, is easy to imitate and surpass by the similar brand, and the product homogenization is serious, lacks individuality.

"If positioning is the high-end clothing brand, we must build a brand from the first tier cities, enter the core business circle, and gradually develop the two or three tier cities."

In short, the brand must have the soul, the soul composition must have the qualified designer, an outstanding leader is very important.

Fundamentally, we should focus on product development, brand planning, brand promotion and marketing strategy.

The development of private brand should be gradual, not too fast and too fast, and the result may be counterproductive.

Conditional and resource agents can consider going on the horse. If the conditions are not enough, they should be cautious. If they do not seem to be fragrant, they will find that they are hot potatoes.

Department store

Traditional retailers have many advantages in implementing their own brands. First, they will break the situation that manufacturers dominate the world and occupy a monopoly position, so as to enhance the bargaining position of retailers in the process of brand introduction and operation, thus forcing manufacturers or suppliers to lower the supply price of their goods, improve their service level and distribution. On the other hand, because the purchase of private brand does not need to go through intermediate links, the cost is reduced and the cost is greatly saved.

Because retailers control terminal shelf display, they can increase their sales volume by placing their own brand products beside the main brands, so as to achieve the purpose of promoting their own brand goods, resulting in an increase in sales of their own brands and an increase in the profits of retailers.

Secondly, retailers can be differentiated and get a certain competitive advantage.

The development of private brand goods is not only to compete with manufacturers' brands, but also to form retailers' differentiation and gain certain competitive advantages.

If we use the manufacturer's brand, it will make consumers feel that "store side by side". It is not important to shop at which store, but if we adopt the retailer's own brand, we will make the products we run have characteristics, and create conditions for effective segmentation of the market and meeting the needs of consumers.

In addition, retailers can have more control over the specifications, packaging and product quality of their own brand products, and fill in the blank of commodity category, because retail stores are the most front-end of commodity sales, and their own brands make retailers have more selectivity and initiative in the development and selection of commodities. They can develop their own designs according to their own needs, tailor the commodities that are suitable for their target customers, and then meet the special needs of stores.

Thirdly, the private brand helps to enhance the image of the store and the loyalty of the customers. The private brand can establish a distinctive corporate image. With the sale of its own brand goods, the name of the retail enterprise has been brought into the consumer's home. The price advantage is conducive to the establishment of the store image. With the help of its own brand, it can establish the trust relationship with the customer, and the private brand can control the relationship with the consumers, even if there is a temporary shortage, there will be no loss of customers.

From the practice of foreign countries, as long as there are certain conditions, private brand can be a great success in department stores, and it can become one of the core competitiveness of department stores.

In Europe, it has become a successful mode of department stores. Many famous department stores have strong own brand development system, for example, Martha stores in England sell almost exclusively their own brands.

The "San Michae" brand of Ma Shi Group has broken the geographical restrictions and sold it in more than 30 countries.

In addition, Sears stores in the United States and French old Buddha are all successful examples of department stores running their own brands.

However, there is a "cold" situation in the field of Chinese department stores. Wang Xiangsheng pointed out that there are two reasons:

First is the department store's own reasons. At present, most Chinese department stores have become the "two landlords" role. They do not have their own brands and rely entirely on investment management.

In the late 80s of last century, because of the scarcity of commodities, department stores basically adopted the "buying system".

With the branding of the department stores and the sharp rise in rents, department stores have turned to the "steady and no lose" joint mode.

Brand operators and agents gradually control the entry and sale of goods in the long term operation. Many department stores also enjoy "two landlords" and are unwilling to change.

Next is the commodity factor, if the department store does the daily necessities, the influence factor is not big, because the consumer is not so strict to this kind of brand request, considers the price factor to be able to be many.

But instead of focusing on price and quality, clothing brands are just the opposite. They will also consider the brand's style, background and ideas.

Therefore, it is very difficult for department stores to make clothes own brand.

It's not that we can't do it, but we need more energy, material and financial resources to invest.

Wang Xiangsheng also reminds the department store that the road of department stores under the "two landlord" mode is doomed to be narrower and narrower. This mode lacks the purchase and purchase of the products and the purchase of fashionable products, leading to the same brand structure, category composition and even marketing hand of the domestic department stores.

The department stores must get rid of the homogenization and provide "personalized value" products.

He said.

There are business opportunities for the department stores to make their own brands.

The goal of shopping malls across the whole country is difficult to implement, but if we make a brand chain, chances will be much greater. "

Wang Xiangsheng thinks that it is still very important for the department store to launch its own brand, but it should not be too blind.

"If the department stores want to develop their own brands, there are three necessary processes. The first stage is to go back to the procurement, and from the" two landlord "to the buyer.

Brand is not created with abundant capital.

Department stores have three advantages, the first is capital, the second is the channel, and the third is resources.

But at this time, it is not the past brand, but the consumer, we need to understand the needs of consumers.

In the second stage, the department store has a very wide channel, so we might as well try to be an agent.

It is easier to understand the development of the market by exploring the market with the brand so as to confirm the location of its own brand.

Only by buying and acting can we have rich experience.

It's easier for us to develop our own brand in the third stage.

There are many examples of trying to build own brands in domestic department stores. Beijing Yansha friendship mall registered "Yansha" trademark a few years ago, developed "Yansha" brand shirts, bags and other commodities; the women's clothing brand L&B and IYB made in halls shopping center; Qingdao Liqun group also developed "Liqun" brand jewelry and "Liqun" brand shirts with the same name as shopping malls in 2002.

However, these brands eventually disappeared because of popularity or economic reasons.

Wang Xiangsheng's analysis of the failure of these brands is due to inadequate preparation in the early stage, not accurate enough for the needs of consumers and the development of the market.

Although there are many advantages to sell its own brand, the development of its own brand requires capital investment in earlier stage, greater risk and professional talents.

Wang Xiangsheng thinks that the department store must cultivate a good team, as a Ministry of Commerce, rather than a simple department.