Lead: "Don't ignore the innovative behavior in this industry. Many auxiliary marketing models we have innovated have become our main business, just like IBM's earliest service system, and finally become a profitable department of IBM."

An Associated Press reporter used to be Pierre, a fashion designer? Cardin took such a photo-Pierre in a black coat? Kadan walked in the streets of Beijing with his hands in his pockets. Behind him was a group of China youths wearing blue workers' clothes. On the left front, an old farmer with a crumpled bag turned his head and looked curiously at Pierre, who was blond and blue-eyed. Cardin, the old farmer's liberation hat, double-breasted cotton-padded jacket and Pierre? Cardin's fashionable dress forms a dramatic contrast.

this is the gap between China men's wear and the world men's wear in 1979.

In the days that followed, countless people in China's clothing industry made efforts to shorten this gap. Xia Hua is one of them. She is a rare woman in men's wear industry. She interprets men's wear with women's special delicacy and sensibility, and dotes on men's wear. She is a non-professional designer, but she has a big dream of standing in the world's top fashion show.

Old Trees and New Flowers

At a summit gathering of entrepreneurs in China's clothing industry, Xia Hua's sentence: "Now we are qualified to talk about the future of China's clothing industry" attracted the attention of all entrepreneurs present.

More than a decade ago, most garment enterprises in China were basically OEM production for foreign brands in order to survive. Xia Hua also lobbied in various shopping malls with clothes of Yiwen brand, "Please give domestic brands a piece of soil and a chance!" . For a long time, China garment enterprises have been struggling to catch up, and have little leisure to think about the future. Now, in addition to owning their own brands, Xiahua has changed from a chaser to an industry innovator, injecting innovative elements into garment enterprises and making old trees bloom with new flowers.

Joseph, one of the most famous economists and sociologists in the 2th century and the father of innovation theory? Schumpeter pointed out that change and innovation are always right, and there is no eternal system. Being in the traditional clothing industry, Xia Hua didn't stick to the rules, but challenged the tradition again and again, bringing her one honor after another. In 26, Yiwen became the only clothing enterprise selected as an "independent innovation clothing brand" in CCTV's innovation activities in China. In 27, Yiwen won the "China Textile Innovation Award".

"The innovation of a brand is not limited to product innovation, but I think more model innovation can also bring great value." Xia Hua said in an exclusive interview with China New Times, "Yiwen's model innovation mainly focuses on special innovative marketing, including emotional marketing and cultural marketing embedded brand marketing model, as well as Yiwen's special service model. These innovative models help us to constantly refresh our sales, but also help us enhance the influence of the brand. "

Since 2, Yiwen has held cultural enjoyment feasts with different themes every year-"My father and my mother", "Beauty in the storm" and "Responsibility" ... Culture is connected with each other. Xia Hua has drawn the distance between Yiwen and consumers by presenting static exhibitions of cultural phenomena that are in line with social reality for Yiwen's consumers again and again. She believes that "a clothing brand can express the fashion sense of its brand with culture, which is a very innovative move in the marketing field." .

At the same time of cultural marketing, Xiahua is accompanied by emotional marketing. On the morning of Valentine's Day in 23, tens of thousands of gifts were sent from Yiwen's headquarters to Yiwen's customers by express delivery. These gifts are somewhat ambiguous-a dessert, a rose, and a pink card that says "Forever Lover-Yiwen".

This gift surprised many men, and some civil servants' clients even dared not open it in the office, so they had to secretly take it to the bathroom to open it. When it was found that it was a gift carefully prepared by the company that bought the clothes, the customers changed from initial surprise to surprise. Many people immediately showed off the packaging to their colleagues and made a real-life advertisement for Yiwen for free. "As a matter of fact, this marketing plan will cost millions if it is included in the courier fee. If this money is put on the TV media, it will indeed be more widely publicized, but we hope to give our customers a casual touch and touch." Xia Hua said.

After the success of the emotional marketing plan, Xia Hua fixed it as a daily maintenance means for VIP, and VIP will receive gifts distributed by Yiwen at every major festival. In addition, in the marketing model, Yiwen is constantly innovating, and all successful models will be carried out in the business.

"what is marketing? Marketing is to give customers a casual touch and touch after we think hard, so that our customers can remember this brand and follow it. So over the years, we have combed the marketing context of Yiwen, and we have never done earth-shattering events, including exhibitions. I've always said that the guest's purse is the nearest place, not the hand. Therefore, you must know how to grasp the hearts of guests, especially men's wear. " .

the sense of innovation is an important symbol of the progress of China's garment enterprises, but Xia Hua admits that the gap between China's garment industry and the world's garment industry still exists. "Simply from the appearance, there is a gap in design, and cultural accumulation also takes time to experience, which requires continuous consideration and improvement from generation to generation. The root gap is still the psychology of China garment enterprises to be brands. The real big brands need the care of heirlooms. "

Becoming a monk halfway

Xia Hua, who brought countless innovations to the clothing industry, had no intersection with the clothing industry at first.

In p>1987, Xia Hua was successfully admitted to China University of Political Science and Law. Four years later, she chose to stay on as a teacher with excellent professional performance. Teachers in colleges and universities are naturally enviable jobs. Even Xia Hua believes that life in the future will start around the three-foot platform. However, the quiet life has just lasted for one year, and a trip to the south easily overthrew Xia Hua's planned life countless times.

In p>1992, the school accepted a research topic of the State Council-"Economic Development and Legal System Construction in Coastal Areas". As a research teacher, Xia Hua took a dozen students to Fujian for a month-long field trip. When the phenomenon described in the research report was vividly presented to Xia Hua, she was shocked. The enthusiasm for economic development in coastal areas made Xia Hua feel the impact of the heat wave.

Some business owners are not well educated, but their careers are still flourishing. Xia Hua vaguely feels that this is a rare opportunity. Soon after returning to Beijing, she decided to quit her job and start a business in the sea. Colleagues and friends advised her to think twice before acting. My father, who has always been proud of Xia Hua, flew into a rage. The old father didn't understand why his daughter gave up the three-foot platform and ran to the counter. "Although all roads lead to Rome, flying can get to Rome faster." Xia Hua enlightened the people around him so much, but also gave himself confidence. After all, it was a completely strange industry.

Xia Hua left China University of Political Science and Law, carrying the blue suitcase that her father frugally bought for her when she was in college. After collecting 2, yuan, Xia Hua rented a counter less than 1 square meters in Xidan Shopping Mall to wholesale and retail men's suits and shirts.

"The reason why I chose to start with men's wear is related to my constant attention to investigation. At that time, I noticed the' bag-carrying rate' in shopping malls. We know that men generally enter shopping malls only when they have needs, and all men who enter shopping malls basically have a high' bag-carrying rate'. Because men's suits are very important in the workplace, many people are willing to spend thousands of dollars to buy a suit of professional clothes. In addition, we must be rational in choosing our own development direction. Men's wear is my rational choice, because women's wear is very variable, and I am not a designer, but men's wear is more stable, which is more conducive to my entry and foothold. "

In order to save money, Xia Hua lived a semi-vagrant life instead of renting a house. Where is the suitcase? That's Xia Hua's temporary hotel. Classmates' homes, even the waiting rooms of railway stations and bus stations were once places where Xia Hua settled down. She never felt bitter. "The next morning, I washed up and went to the counter with a small box full of energy."

from the beginning of crossing the river by feeling the stones, to gradually finding the characteristics of this industry, Xia Hua is also waiting for an opportunity to find a breakthrough. In 1994, Xia Hua, who had registered the "Yiwen" trademark, noticed that most of the local men's wear in China was dominated by blue, gray and black. Can it subvert men's habitual thinking? Xia Hua decided to fight hard.

At that time, a woolen mill was overstocked with a large number of plaid fabrics and brightly colored tweed fabrics due to the lack of export quotas. These fabrics were the favorite of foreign men, and Xia Hua decided to gamble all his possessions to eat in this inventory. However, the suit was made and hung in the mall for three days. On the fourth day, Xia Hua found a pictorial, went to a photo studio to enlarge it into a photo, and hung it on a wall of a shopping mall. She named this photo show "Bright Life", and the result was really extraordinary.

In the early 199s, the TV series "Beijingers in new york" opened the channel for Chinese people to connect with the world. At that time, Chinese people were eager for all new things, and the gradual improvement of living standards also gave them more energy to dress themselves up, and they chose beautiful things more boldly. Xia Hua seized the opportunity in time, and when people began to recognize Yiwen brand, Xia Hua strengthened her unique vision for this industry.

Multi-brand strategy

With a history of 14 years, Evian Company has four brands: Evian, Notting Hill, Kevin Kelly and JAQUES PRITT. "Single brand and multi-brand management have their own advantages and disadvantages. From a certain perspective, the segmentation of clothing will become more and more detailed, and it is difficult to expect a brand's products and styles to adapt to most people. The reason why we are a multi-brand is that we are reorganizing and thinking in the process of subdividing people. Different professional backgrounds, different cultural backgrounds and even different emotional orientations have caused the differences in men's clothing habits. We have formed multi-brand thinking through thinking and research on different groups of people. "

Xia Hua doesn't deliberately create a brand. Every time a new brand is born, there is a beautiful story behind it. Notting Hill is due to a love movie, and Xia Hua is moved by the hero's persistent pursuit. "There are such a group of people among our consumers. They are young and fashionable. They don't have heavy thinking and pressure. They pursue distinctive personality and style. Notting Hill is prepared for these men who are full of passion, look forward to the future, long for romance and persistent pursuit."

Kevin Kelly, on the other hand, is a classic men's clothing brand, inspired by the advanced men's ready-to-wear service centers in Europe. Xia Hua said, "Many customers are busy with work. In view of this situation, we timely launched the Kevin Kelly brand to provide customers with 24-hour service and free washing for life. At the same time, clubs are set up for customers to provide them with butler-style services when they are tired. It should be said that Kevin Kelly launched a service model with no choice for the first time in China. As long as it is Kevin Kelly's VIP guests, we will have no choice but to serve them and devote ourselves to the concept that service has no boundaries. "

The appearance of Kevin Kelly brand has shortened the distance between products and services. Xia Hua thinks: "The future development thinking of clothing brands should not only think about clothing itself, but also think about elements other than clothing, and gradually change from selling' products' to selling' services'." This difference is better than distinguishing brands simply from product differentiation, which makes the differences between brands more distinct and is more conducive to cultivating independent brands with profound cultural connotations.

Xia Hua said that she named her first brand "Yiwen", which means "people, clothes and culture". Yiwen, written in Song style, contains the original flavor of China. When Xia Hua turned Yiwen into a well-known brand in China and began to look at the world, she realized that Yiwen enterprises also needed brands with world symbols. It was for this reason that the Notting Hill, Kevin Kelly and JAQUES PRITT brands were founded. After the birth of these brands with world symbolic significance, Xia Hua had the dream of going to the world runway. "We hope to open a shop in Paris one day."

in addition to the diversified development of clothing brands, Xia Hua also began to try to set foot in other fields. Xia Hua said that these extended businesses "belong to endogenous enterprises except for projects that cooperate with others."

The gift companies and environmental design departments under Yiwen Enterprise Group were originally only departments serving the internal enterprises, such as gift companies, which designed gifts for their guests from the beginning. Because of their unique designs, some enterprises gradually found them asking for gifts. The environmental design department not only helps some enterprises to design the office environment, but also provides environmental design services for many hotels.

"Don't ignore the innovative behavior in this industry. Many of our innovative auxiliary marketing models have become our main business, just like IBM's earliest service system and finally become a profitable department of IBM." Xia Hua said.

Now, several major business areas other than clothing contribute about 3% of the annual turnover to Yiwen Group. "A company with strong design will have unlimited room for divergence in the future." Xia Hua said.