Theme: After China's entry into WTO, China's clothing brands are facing strong international and domestic market competition pressure. How to meet the double challenges is a realistic problem before them. This paper intends to analyze the development process of domestic clothing and the brand's individual operation mode as a starting point, and develop new ideas from the perspective of brand, which has aroused widespread concern and discussion.
In recent years, China's economy has been growing continuously, and the clothing industry has also developed rapidly, with the production and export of clothing ranking first in the world. However, compared with developed countries, the quality of China's clothing products is still in a backward state, and there is no real high fashion brand so far. Are we willing to be the processing base of foreign brands? Moreover, nowadays "global economic integration" is imperative, and foreign super-large companies come to China to seek production resources and market resources for greater development. How should we meet the external challenges is a problem that all industries, including the clothing industry, must face.
With the international environment like this, the domestic industry competition is becoming more and more fierce. How to meet the needs of consumers? How to realize the sustainable development of enterprises? How to expand the influence of China clothing brand in the world? These practical problems in front of clothing enterprises are also unavoidable.
I. the development course of China's clothing industry
the study of China's clothing brands is based on the understanding of the development process of China's clothing industry. Due to historical reasons, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, China's clothing enterprises have experienced ups and downs for half a century. Its development can be roughly divided into three stages:
1. Planned economy period. Clothing enterprises have little autonomy, production, supply and marketing depend on the unified planning and distribution of higher authorities, and the clothing industry has not formed an active market, and people's desire for clothing has been suppressed to a minimum.
2. The primary period of market economy can also be called the period of shortage economy. In the initial stage of reform and opening up, people's mentality of pursuing beauty has just recovered, and the demand for clothes is very large. The products produced by clothing enterprises are in short supply, which has formed a very hot sales situation for a while. Therefore, garment enterprises have mushroomed, but rushing to the horse will not bring sustained prosperity. At that time, the product variety was single, which easily saturated the market. After two years of market saturation, some enterprises were eliminated. Surviving garment enterprises are prepared for danger in times of peace, no longer satisfied with the simple increase of product quantity, actively adjust their business ideas, improve product quality, and lay the foundation for the sustainable development of enterprises.
3. The period of complete market economy. Clothing enterprises have experienced the test of the market and gradually matured. Especially in the 199s, they entered a stage of rapid development, and the degree of clothing marketization increased. With the acceleration of global economic integration, clothing enterprises are not only facing changes in their own structures and organizational forms, but also facing fierce market competition from domestic and foreign clothing brands. Therefore, the investment of hardware and equipment alone can no longer meet the needs of market competition, and enterprises are looking for a way out for sustainable development.
There are two existing business models for garment enterprises: brand design and foreign trade processing.
before p>1995, in order to expand foreign exchange reserves, the state gave considerable preferential policies to foreign trade exports, thus stimulating the export processing of clothing. Many large state-owned garment enterprises are mainly engaged in export processing of foreign trade garments. In order to improve profits, while strengthening management and production technology, we actively expand production scale. The scale of the enterprise is expanding rapidly, but because the enterprise relies on foreign trade export for a long time, it only needs to process according to the sample, ensure the quality and deliver on time, without worrying about the market changes, which leads to the lack of clothing processing enterprises: A. The production capacity is great, but the marketing ability is weak. B. Strong production technology, but limited product development capability. C. management is acceptable, but the overall planning level is not enough.
With the adjustment of the national foreign trade export policy and the change of the international environment, especially after China's accession to the WTO, the garment export-oriented production enterprises will lose the role of the existing bilateral quotas in ensuring their market share. With the end of seller's market and the rise of buyer's market, users' demand for products and services is more diversified and personalized, the requirements for quality and delivery time are more and more demanding, the product life cycle is shortened, and the update frequency is accelerated. All these changes have made foreign trade processing enterprises come to the crossroads of transformation. Because the enterprises with the above problems lack talents in marketing, planning and design, they are at a disadvantage in the fierce market competition. Some processing enterprises that woke up earlier adjusted their business structure in time, changed the single processing type into production and marketing type, and developed the domestic market with great potential; Some propose to build a brand of processing enterprise image. The most important thing for foreign investors is the "grade" of the enterprise, and then the cheap labor. To make your own enterprise "grade", you should not only strive for first-class hardware such as equipment and workshop, but also have advantages in talent, production management, cost and quality management, and the relationship between public and private, so as to be superior in delivery time, product quality and profitability and increase competitiveness. This is also a special brand effect.
second, the process of brand growth
the operation mode of brand design enterprises is different from that of foreign trade processing enterprises. Brand growth is not a one-off event. Generally speaking, there are four stages:
1. Entrepreneurship stage. At this stage, the survival problem of enterprises has not been completely solved. The design idea needs to run in with the market reflection, and there is no stable channel for product sales. It takes a lot of efforts to find a suitable shopping mall or establish its own specialty store. There are still many problems in the enterprise, which can be said to be a period of running for a living.
2. product stage. With the basic solution of the enterprise's survival problem, the sales of products have increased obviously, the production is relatively stable, and the technical level of employees has been guaranteed to some extent. At this time, the problem facing entrepreneurs is: to develop enterprises continuously, we must further strengthen management, develop new products, expand markets and improve competitiveness.
3. Brand stage. The development of enterprises has been upgraded from "quantity" to "quality", and it has jumped to the brand stage, and the products have been significantly improved in popularity, marketing network, market share, corporate culture and employee quality. No matter what marketing method is adopted, it has its unified brand image, unified goods and price, unified management and service. The brand image is gradually gaining popularity and has a fixed consumption class.
4. Famous brand stage. In the process of brand management, new products are constantly developed and corporate culture is constantly deepening, which brings new ideas to consumers and stimulates consumption desire in new fields. The gold content of the brand is constantly increasing, and the brand name has become the most valuable intangible asset. While being recognized by consumers, some enterprises have been rated as famous brand products and well-known trademarks by authoritative departments. The aura of famous brands attracts more consumers, and the high added value of famous brands brings more profits to enterprises.
most brand clothing enterprises in China have experienced such a development process.
Brand design enterprises and foreign trade processing enterprises have different ways of branding, but the essence is the same-the key is the sustainable development of enterprises.
Third, the individual operation of clothing brands
Every clothing brand has a set of brand development and operation mode explored according to its own characteristics, which can be said to be "eight immortals crossing the sea, each showing its abilities".
Wuhan Taihe Group is famous for producing professional women's wear all over the country. When Taihe Fashion's annual sales reached more than 2 million yuan and was named as a famous brand of women's wear in China, they were not complacent and relaxed. For a clothing enterprise, simply operating products is usually laborious but thankless. Compared with international famous brands, the technical equipment is not bad, and there are many advertisements. Why is it difficult to operate? Through hard thinking, they decided that the business model is the biggest obstacle to the development of enterprises. With the help of foreigners from France, Japan, Taiwan Province and other countries, "Taihe" started with the change of management mode, from product management to brand management, and achieved a qualitative leap. They start with the reform of marketing methods, create brand culture with new ideas, and drive the potential demand of consumers. These "takenism" combined with their own advantages have learned advanced foreign experience, reduced the cost of exploration and development, and shortened the time.
Shanshan Group, which was originally from Ningbo and later moved to Shanghai, has always been the "leader" in the clothing industry. At that time, as a pure men's wear brand, they had a certain market share, but they were not satisfied with fighting at the bottom of the market with large quantity and low quality, and they should further develop and expand their enterprises. So it set off a frenzy of hiring designers with high salaries, and was the first to put forward the cooperation mode of marriage between "famous enterprises" and "famous teachers", and the effect was also the best. They introduced talents and used advertising effects to enhance brand awareness and internal strength of enterprises. Later, he founded "Fa Han Shi", proposing that the era of high-end ready-to-wear in China has arrived, and predicting that the most competitive and growing range will be concentrated in the field of high-end ready-to-wear in the future. Therefore, they no longer care whether they still win by quantity.
White-collar, a famous clothing brand in Beijing, mostly uses pure silk and pure wool fabrics to cater to the consumption concept of northern women who pay attention to fabric texture, and designs simple suits suitable for professional women to wear when they go out. It is the brand positioning strategy of white-collar workers not to keep up with colorful fashion trends and not to lag behind the times in elegance and generosity. They have their own clear design orientation, and they also have a fixed consumer class.
Shanghai Yifei Fashion Company, drawing lessons from the operation mode of international popular brands, adopted the concept of brand extension, and launched three subordinate brands at the same time: Leyefe, a high-priced and high-quality menswear brand, Layefe collection, and Layefe street, a young series. Three brands participate in market competition at the same time, and each has a clear market positioning and a distinctive and easily recognizable product image. They take brand strategy as the guide, and are characterized by being advanced, refined and serialized, fully infiltrating into the atmosphere of international fashion culture, causing waves in the fashion circle and bringing surprises to fashionable and avant-garde consumers.
iv. Future operation modes of clothing brands
There are many remarkable clothing brands and many successful operation modes, but there is no completely imitative operation possibility. Some enterprises are satisfied with plagiarism and imitation. It is believed that going abroad twice a year, collecting some styles for mass production in our own processing factory and selling them in the domestic market at relatively good prices can win the market competition. However, this phenomenon of mutual plagiarism leads to similar products. What is even more worrying is that this situation is the biggest obstacle to the development of China brand. Lack of originality will lead to the lack of stylization and personalization of the brand. This way can only be based on the immaturity and naivety of consumers. Once consumers mature, the market will not give too much time and opportunity to repent, and these "plagiarists" will have no place to stand.
in the final analysis, the development of brand is the development of personality, and the competition of brand is the competition of culture. Making a brand is not only about making clothes, but also about things other than clothes. "Culture is tomorrow's economy"-American Lander Company has analyzed the world's top 5 companies and found that all enterprises that still have strong vitality after a hundred years have profound brand culture. After China's entry into WTO, the global market will be open to us, and we will learn more successful experiences. Our market will also be open to the world, which will make us face greater challenges. Culture has communication and fluidity, and a strong culture has imperceptible aggression. Only by strengthening the internal energy of local culture can we communicate with foreign cultures on an equal footing.
it's better to retreat and make a net than to fish in the forest.
the three signs of global integration are: information integration, market unification and merger and reorganization among companies. It will lead to new and more subtle commercial wars. As long as China's clothing brands establish their own brand system, clear brand image, scientific market segmentation standards, develop new technologies and strengthen brand culture connotation, they will surely occupy their due market share and resist the powerful offensive of foreign brands.