It’s Valentino
Speaking of the famous Italian brand Valentino (Valentino, also translated as Valentino), many consumers are really familiar with and unfamiliar with it. What is familiar is the prosperity. "Valentino" keeps appearing in front of our eyes in the busy city, and what is unfamiliar is its 72 variations of identity: Valentino Louis, Valentino Cooper, Lugano Valentino, San Valentino, Valentino GV, Alliance Valentino, etc. wait.
Since 2004, a large number of "Valentino" stores have popped up across the country. The products sold in these stores are not only extremely low-priced, but also flaunt their "Valentino" origins to the outside world. This situation is getting more and more intense at present. However, as far as the author knows, none of the above-mentioned brands has the blood of the Valentino family, and it is even going to be a farce of "Li Gui" chasing away "Li Kui". Today, Valentino is by no means just a brand problem. It also includes the well-known brands such as "Montagut", "Crocodile" and "Old Man". Such problems also make it disgusting and troublesome. For this reason, the author conducted an in-depth and detailed investigation. Understand, and hope to be able to unlock the counterfeit code of fake famous brands. Here only "Valentino" is used as the main subject.
Unveiling the mystery of Valentino
In 1908, VINCENZO VALENTINO founded the Valentino brand in Naples, Italy. Since then, Valentino has become a brand supported by Italian royal families and celebrities.
In 1954, the coral sandals designed by MRAIO VALENTINO, the second generation heir to the Valentino family, were grandly introduced on the cover of the famous French fashion magazine VOGUE. As a model of 20th century industrial design, this sandal is displayed in the [Swiss Shoe and Boot Museum].
In 1955, Mario Valentino [MRAIO VALENTINO] launched the second historical design product high-heeled sandals [SRILETTO] on the Roman fashion stage.
In 1956, Giovani Valentino, the third generation descendant of Valentino, founded a new Valentino brand named "Giovani Valentino". This brand has established five major sales systems in China: leather shoes, leather goods, men's clothing, women's clothing, and underwear. The membership-based consumption model fully meets the needs of elites from all walks of life who pursue "quality and taste" of life. And entered the Chinese market in 1997.
In 1985, Mario Valentino received the Special Achievement Award from Italian President Sandro PERTINI on behalf of his family, and was awarded the country's highest honor, the "Cavaliere" medal. His fame is at its peak.
Mario passed away in 1991. Currently, the Valentino family is led by the third generation Vicenzo Valentino, and the above-mentioned Giovani Valentino (Giovani Valentino) is his younger brother.
The Italian Valentino Garavani, born in 1933, is a famous fashion designer. He founded the Valentino women's clothing brand in 1962, registered another important Valentino brand in the Netherlands, and became famous in Europe. Valentino Gravani himself is considered an elite figure in the haute couture industry. The brand became an Italian luxury clothing brand, especially famous for producing high-end women's clothing.
As far as the author knows, there are only three brands in the world that are directly related to Italian Valentino, namely Mario Valentino, Valentino Gravani and Giovanni Valentino.
In order to prevent conflicts between these Valentino brands, in 1978, the Valentino family and Valentino Gravani reached an agreement. The two parties would divide their forces. Valentino Gravani owned Valentino in clothing products. (Valentino) trademark exclusive rights. Mario Valentino owns the exclusive rights to the Valentino (Valentino) trademark in leather shoes and leather goods. Since Giovanni Valentino established the brand after this agreement came into being, he can produce both Footwear and leather products can also be produced as clothing, but the products must bear the full trademark name Giovani Valentino.
At the same time, in the Chinese market, only Zhejiang Babei Group has signed an exclusive agency agreement with Valentino Gravani Company, and it will be the agent for the sales of Valentino ties and men's clothing in China. Guangzhou George Shoes Co., Ltd. signed an agreement with Mario Valentino to be the exclusive agent for the sales of Valentino footwear products in China. At the same time, Guangzhou Cuiying Clothing Co., Ltd., a member of Hong Kong Ruiyuan International Co., Ltd., also received the authorization signature from Mr. and Mrs. Giovanni Valentino in Guangzhou on April 21, 2002, officially authorizing it to be Giovanni Valentino underwear. The general agent of series (men's and women's underwear, home clothes, bras, socks) in mainland China.
At this point in the article, I think all readers should start to feel as if they are waking up from a dream, and sigh: So that’s it! However, this was just the beginning of the tragedy.
Family division and brand pain
In 1987, Italian high-end clothing brand Valentino entered the Chinese market for the first time. Today, 17 years later, what we see is that the dazzling "Valentino XX" is flooding every bustling downtown area in the city at low prices, but what we hear is that Italian Valentino will officially withdraw from the Chinese market. news.
There is an old saying in China: "A small boat is easy to turn around." From Valentino, we seem to see some of the fulfillment of the philosophy. For a large family ship like Valentino, the interior of the hull is The problem may be one of the key reasons why the boat can't quickly avoid oncoming waves.
At present, there are no less than 200 counterfeit trademarks of the Valentino brand in China, including dozens or even 100 on leather shoes. “A large part of the reason why Valentino is unwilling to take severe measures in the Chinese market is that the family divides and conquers the brand. From the above information, we can see that the development of the Valentino family at the current stage is actually made up of three parts. Support: Gravani, Mario and Giovanni. Due to the independent operation of the three parties, everyone takes the use of the brand for granted, but when it comes to brand maintenance, everyone is relatively slack and dependent. In fact, the phenomenon of family division similar to Valentino is also quite common in Chinese companies, such as Hubei's Nine-Headed Bird Company. Although the brand may not be affected in the end, the results are heartbreaking, and for Valentino All we can say is that this is the result of family division and brand pain!
Strategic-oriented thinking determines the outcome
“There are so many people in China, and China is developing so fast.” , I think these two sentences should be the first understanding of China by many foreign friends. In fact, in these two simple sentences, we can clearly feel some commercial atmosphere. The large number of people represents the broad market potential. The speed of development will determine that the consumption power of Chinese consumers will also continue to rise rapidly. Of course, what will follow is a boom in business. Chinese companies will develop rapidly to meet the needs of the Chinese people, and at the same time, they will look abroad. It is also inevitable that foreign companies have poured into the country in large numbers to bring better products and higher-end consumption enjoyment to Chinese consumers, each getting what they need.
There is another reason why Valentino failed. A very important reason that we have to pay attention to is because of its strong brand appeal and broad market span. It is present in no less than a hundred countries except China, which strategically causes it to not pay attention to the Chinese market.
The mentality of trying to enter China is very wrong under the premise that the Chinese market is developing rapidly and has been legalized, causing it to miss the development opportunities in this market."
For China Market awareness issues have led to insufficient monitoring of Valentino's entire process from brand planning, authorized production, to marketing network. For a brand with considerable brand appeal, it is easy to leave huge opportunities for some counterfeiters.
Catalyst for OEM production of overdraft brands
Due to cheap labor and lack of competitive brands and independent intellectual property rights, China has become a paradise for well-known foreign manufacturers to carry out OEM production. The fatal weakness is that the initiative is in the hands of others: there are often multiple OEM manufacturers to choose from for a product, and customers have a lot of room for selection and bargaining. The company can only continue to transfer the small profits from the processing fee.
As competition intensifies, many companies that rely on OEM production for famous brands have begun to wake up: they must learn from the successful experiences of others and create their own brands through OEM. But building a brand does not happen overnight. At this time, "famous brands" will show the advantage of shortcuts.
As China becomes the world's factory, those processing plants that rely on OEM orders also face more traps: one of them is speculators. Used to become a virtual tool for counterfeiting.
These Valentino stores claim to be authorized by the Italian Valentino Company or Hong Kong Valentino, and the prices are very cheap. A pair of Valentino Binu trousers only costs 49 yuan, while a shirt only costs 50 yuan. A salesman told reporters that these are subsidiaries of Italian Valentino, so the names are slightly different, “but they are all Valentino, and the quality is absolute. no problem. It’s just that we are domestically produced, so the price is cheap. "The reporter then asked several consumers who had purchased clothing with the word Valentino. They all came here because of its reputation and thought they were buying authentic Valentino clothing.
Some people in the industry pointed out, "It's not as good as a famous brand. "The reason why it has become a shortcut in the eyes of speculators is mainly due to the loopholes in the law itself. Why is the phenomenon of "famous brands" becoming more and more intense? According to industry insiders, as production technology becomes more and more advanced, it becomes easier to produce counterfeit brand clothing. . It is reported that the profits from counterfeiting famous brand clothing are astonishing. For example, a pair of casual pants may cost only a dozen yuan, and the wholesale price after being labeled with a famous brand can reach forty or fifty yuan. At the dealer, some can even be sold for two or three yuan. 100 yuan. The huge profits make many agents and garment factories take risks. They process large quantities of counterfeit imported clothing and then distribute them to some clothing wholesalers, who ship them to all parts of the country. Hundreds of millions of dollars. Another reason is that the current relevant laws and regulations and the enterprise registration system need to be improved. Due to the marginal nature of legal application and the differences in the legal systems between Hong Kong and the Mainland, some lawbreakers are emboldened, which also brings certain difficulties to law enforcement. Difficulty.
Trademark issues reduce brand trust
A man from the domestic trademark department of the China Trademark and Patent Office told reporters that Valentino is a well-known trademark, and adding a prefix or suffix is ??considered similar. It is difficult for trademarks to be approved by the Industrial and Commercial Bureau. However, once these manufacturers apply to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau, they can use the "famous brand" products during this period of time. The Beijing Industry and Commerce Bureau has this time limit. Director Zhang of the Trademark Division of the bureau said that the current use of the Valentino trademark is indeed very confusing, but there is no real trademark right holder to complain to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau with a registration certificate, so it is difficult to trace it
How to identify the authentic Italian product. "Valentino", Chen Yun provided three methods. First, the Chinese name "Valentino" registered by VALENTINO is in traditional Chinese. Secondly, authentic stores use the English "VALENTINO" as the store logo. Third, the "V" shaped trademark. On the top, the circle surrounding the letter "v" is sealed and flat. "The products sold by the company are all imported from Italy, and VALENTINO has no plans to produce clothing domestically.
The most troublesome thing about trademark issues is that many companies are registered in Hong Kong or overseas. Why do many companies go to Hong Kong to register? Mr. Ou, the person in charge of an organization that handles overseas registration business, said that it is more convenient to register a company in Hong Kong. Generally speaking, you only need to provide one shareholder, a local registered address in Hong Kong, and a witness with Hong Kong permanent resident status. . Since Hong Kong’s registration requirements for companies are relatively broad, and even the capital verification step is omitted for the company’s registered capital, many people register companies and trademarks in Hong Kong and then “authorize” the mainland to use the company’s name.
It is understood that there are currently three forms of trademark infringement. One is using a famous trademark to register a company with the corresponding name in Hong Kong. For such infringement, the trademark owner can sue in Hong Kong and request cancellation of the registration; When registering, add another name before the famous trademark, or register a similar trademark. When using it, separate the two names and use only the famous trademark part, or deform the graphic to make it look similar to the famous trademark; the third is to use The trademark acceptance letter deceives consumers. In fact, the trademark acceptance letter does not mean that the trademark can be used legally. Generally, it takes one and a half years from acceptance to obtaining the certificate. If the trademark fails to pass the review, it will be rejected. The situation of the Valentino series mainly belongs to the second type.
Because the owners of the genuine Valentino brand have taken a cold attitude towards a large number of "Valentino" brands, making it difficult for the Industrial and Commercial Bureau to trace them, the emergence of a large number of fake Valentinos has continued to reduce consumers' trust in the brand. In the words of dealers, it means that if the manufacturer does not act, the dealers will be powerless.
In response to the proliferation of Valentino brands in Beijing, Mr. Ma said that it is very difficult to fight counterfeiting. "Although the Italian company authorizes us to crack down on counterfeiting, there are more than 200 brands on the market that add prefixes or suffixes to Valentino, and it's a mixed bag. We can't sue for infringement. We can only let people understand what the real Valentino brand is first. Those who are "similar to famous brands" can achieve their real purpose. However, the current efforts made by Italian companies to deal with this situation are limited and almost no measures have been taken, leaving dealers without the support of the headquarters and lack of confidence when fighting against counterfeiting. . Moreover, the brand is owned by the Italian headquarters after all, and dealers care about short-term profits. If the manufacturer does nothing, dealers will naturally be unable to do their best.
Valentino was helpless
As more and more businesses began to rush to this shortcut, a farce of "Li Gui beats Li Kui away" finally emerged. At the end of 2003, the unsustainable Italian brand "Govanni Valentino" chose to temporarily withdraw from the Chinese market. When referring to this matter, a person in charge of the Trademark Office of the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce pointed out that there are currently 158 "Valentino" brands with various prefixes and suffixes registered with the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and being applied for by local companies. There are more than 200 counterfeit or imitation "Valentino" manufacturers in Shanghai alone.
At the end of the interview, the words of a trademark industry insider revealed the key to this mystery. He said: "In fact, the essence of Fahrenheit's chaos is still the impetuousness of the market and the speculation of lawless elements. Whether famous brands can withstand this test and whether they can maintain their quality and legal status in the chaos is the key. Regardless of wind and waves, , the brand that can provide consumers with the best quality products and services will surely be the final king."
Looking at the various reasons that led to the tragedy of the Valentino brand, it is not difficult to find that the partition of the Valentino brand itself laid the root of the disaster. The strategic neglect of testing the Chinese market caused many unnecessary troubles later. In addition, Negligence in all aspects, including authorized production and trademark monitoring, has provided the soil for the growth of a large number of "Valentino" products.
We are not just discussing or telling a phenomenon here. The most important thing is that we hope to get some useful enlightenment and solutions through these phenomena.
The use and extension of three different Valentino families is an overdraft for the brand. In addition, the three institutions authorize their own different institutions in China to produce, which further promotes the speed of the brand towards tragedy and accelerates the development of the brand. The Italian headquarters do not maintain the brands they own. From registered trademarks to authorization, OEM, marketing network and brand maintenance, we have not seen any relevant measures taken by the owners of the Valentino brand, allowing fake Valentino to roam the market arbitrarily. As a result, a royal and aristocratic brand like "Valentino" has gradually become an ordinary brand that can be found everywhere in the streets. Moreover, in a market where consumers are increasingly obsessed with lavish spending, consumers have lost their trust in the Valentino brand. This has I'm afraid this is something Valentino will have to make amends for a long time to come.
So, considering the current development situation of Valentino, how should we continue to move forward? For a large number of brands similar to Valentino, such as Montagut, Crocodile, etc., they are basically guilty of similar problems, but the severity is different. If you want to change the destiny of the Valentino brand, you must start the following three major projects for a long time in the future:
1. Recruitment project
The current situation of Valentino is obviously a warning to Italy It is important for the headquarters to clean up the market as soon as possible. If the three brand owners can unite as soon as possible and work together to maintain Valentino, the change in the brand's destiny will definitely accelerate. The suggestions are as follows: use all resources to crack down on infringing companies, and initiate criminal prosecutions if necessary; and for some production companies that can meet Valentino's requirements, consider taking "recruitment" measures and include them in its supplier team. In this way, some outstanding companies among the nearly 200 existing brands close to "Valentino" can be included as officially legally authorized manufacturers or distributors, laying the foundation for Valentino's low-cost expansion of the market.
2. Litigation project
At the same time as the recruitment project is launched, we will launch a lawsuit against the "Valentino" brand, and cooperate with local authorized dealers or manufacturers. The headquarters will provide strong support and joint cooperation We will clean up the door together and strive to complete the cleanup in the shortest time to give the real Valentino brand a healthy environment.
3. Brand awareness and update project
After the first two projects were carried out, the third project began to be officially launched. On the one hand, some of the "Valentino" brands were solved through recruitment; On the other hand, through a powerful legal litigation project with a joint team to litigate the remaining "Valentino" brands, the two measures can basically achieve the purpose of cleanup and rectification. However, after all, too many "Valentino" brands have been sold in the market for a long time, which has caused various negative impacts on consumers. Coupled with media exposure, consumers no longer know what it means to recognize the real Italian Valentino. Since we don’t know, we naturally lose trust in the brand, so we must keep up with the communication project of the Valentino brand. We just take this opportunity of large-scale rectification to officially meet the real Valentino with consumers, so that consumers can understand the true face of Valentino. , rekindling the love for the Valentino brand.
The execution of the above three projects plays a vital role in saving the fate of the Valentino brand. The problem is relatively simple to say, but it takes a long time and energy to execute, but for a former For Valentino, which has been a century-old royal and aristocratic brand, it is something worth doing anyway, and it is also something that must be done for brand development. There are still many companies similar to the Valentino problem. How to solve or avoid these problems in the process of rapid development may be something that more business leaders should think calmly about! I hope that the development of the Valentino brand will be a warning to other companies that are rapidly expanding. After all, the perspective and depth of reflection on lessons learned without having to pay for them is different!