Three questions why China does not have its own luxury brand?

On the glittering streets of Beijing's Wangfujing Street, the century-old brand name “Ma Juyuan”, a well-known hat-knife brand known for old Beijing, has a long history. When Zhang Ling and her colleagues in the “80s” walked through Wangfujing every time, out of curiosity, they only looked inside the probe and immediately turned into the Dong’an Mall, which houses international big-name clothing and cosmetics on the corner.

“Most young people feel that they have a long history but they are very much alive.” Ding Huimin, director of the China Time-honored Branding Committee, counts the old Chinese brand members identified by more than 2,000 countries, including Ma Juyuan, and regretfully The reporter said. Although it has a long history and unique craftsmanship as those of international luxury brands, China's time-honored brands have not only failed to obtain brand promotion due to the accumulation of time, but are on the decline.

Different fate glass cabinets of the same gene display pictures of hats produced by Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi after going abroad. However, there are not all old hats sold in the Majuyuan Wangfujing store. The relevant personage of Ma Juyuan once told reporters that in order to change the impression of the old stereotyped tradition of Ma Juyuan in the minds of consumers, in recent years, Ma Juyuan has invited many “80s” designers, but the young consumers attracted are still paralyzed.

Although China has become the world's second largest consumer of luxury goods, almost all local brands are absent in the local luxury consumer market. Why have foreign brands with the same historical accumulation can go to the high end and become an envied high value-added brand, while China's old brands are mostly struggling to survive?

There are several types of successful luxury brands: one is a unique scarcity type. Such as the seven-star Burr Hotel, Patek Philippe watches, etc., mostly because of their production, raw materials, location or craftsmanship, services are scarce; and such as Louis XVI, Cadillac, Hennessy, Emirates palaces, etc. to create respected luxury goods, often with History and the use of people are inseparable from each other. People pass on the esteem of star characters to the products, creating a sense of high-end honor. In fact, many of the old Chinese genes are somewhat similar to this type.

The other is the emphasis on tasteful types, such as vodka, Davidoff, Chivas, Armani, zippo and other clothing, alcohol and tobacco consumption of fast-moving luxury goods. Companies shape the product image and increase the emotional value of the product, making it a symbol of consumer taste. While dream-like luxury goods such as Dior and SK-II are more common in the cosmetics industry, quality is their first guarantee, and depicting good results and good wishes is the first factor that mobilizes consumers' desire to purchase. These two types of domestic brands are trying, but the effect remains to be seen.

After analyzing the above factors, Christian Blanckaert, a former French boutique association member, recently told reporters in Shanghai that luxury brands sell more expensively than others, which has deep-seated reasons. In addition to its long history, dignity, etc., luxury goods are unique in terms of materials, quality, and craftsmanship. This is a prerequisite.

The promotion of luxury brands is widely admired by domestic companies. It is the high added value of international luxury brands, and the resulting high prices, such as GUCCI, whose average selling price is several times that of the production price. Dozens of times is no secret.

In fact, there are a number of domestic brands with unique technological features, such as the high-end brands “Shuang Mei” created by Shanghai Jahwa, or “China’s old brands” such as Kong Fengchun, Wang Xingji, Zhang Xiaoquan, and Hi Debao. It is also ambitiously preparing to enter the luxury goods industry.

For Chinese time-honored brands that want to become an international luxury brand, Kristian believes that one can't ignore the experience that successful international luxury brands are famous domestic luxury brands. If China’s long-established brands want to be the best in the world, they should first become the first-class luxury brands in China. In this process, down-to-earth and hard work are the most critical.

“For many Chinese companies that have established brand awareness, especially the time-honored brand, how to enhance the brand's value as a luxury brand is most worthy of attention.” Jiang Hongbo, general manager of Hangzhou Kong Fengchun Cosmetics Co., Ltd., told reporters.

Kong Fengchun recently introduced a crystal goose powder price of 680 yuan, almost exceeding the price of Chanel, Dior, Estee Lauder and other major international brands of similar products.

"There is not a LOGO, there will be a brand." Shen Lifeng, a retail director of a French luxury goods company in China, told reporters. Most of the successful luxury goods companies, in addition to their core competencies, also have long-term adherence to established strategies. “But many companies in China are like women who lose weight. They rarely persist for a long time. Most entrepreneurs still have the concept of 'earning money' in their minds, rather than the long-term 'branding' concept.”

Cristiano’s proposal for China’s time-honored brand is to enhance the brand in terms of special packaging, special content, special history, special symbolic colors, and high-quality designers. “The reality behind these qualities is that there is a huge amount of work to produce what many people want to have,” said Cristian. “It is a process that requires a long period of accumulation and continuous refinement of details.”

Shen Lifeng believes that many old Chinese companies have indeed been very unique, but they are only known to the older generation of consumers and have a low level of awareness among young people. "Innovation is an important concept of luxury brands." He said that almost every luxury brand is growing in continuous innovation, and this innovation is not only the product of innovation, but a full range of innovation, such as marketing, branding Strategy and so on.

For example, the old Beijingers, who are familiar with the “inlined with Ma Juyuan, wearing Rui Weixiang, with an ankle inline, and four in the waist,” have custom-made cloth shoes for the Qing Dynasty royal family. It was very similar to the famous French fashion brand Hermes. Both were founded in the 19th century, and they both serve their own courts. In the early days, they were hand-made products, inline cloth shoes, and horses.

When the car began to replace horses, Hermès made a clear direction of innovation and transformation. Hermès did not separate itself from the pedigree of his horse harness, but instead seized the opportunity of “the horses would be eliminated, but various kinds of transportation still have unlimited business opportunities” and positioned itself as the “honorable travel” of high society and turned it into production. Seats, suitcases, belts, gloves, and well-known scarves. Hermes's LOGO retains the carriage, implying its own 100-year roots and starting lines, but at the same time it is not overly preaching, but it keeps the fashion and history from being cut off.

However, like most Chinese time-honored brands, Inline Lite still sticks to the characteristics of “a hundred-year-old shop”. When the times have been flooded with new things, Inline Lite still remains to dig out a handful of "classical" cloth shoes, failing to follow up on customers' emotions and needs. In fact, in the era of casual shoes, sports shoes, and leather shoes, it is difficult to become bigger and stronger luxury brands.

If the old dream has a luxury dream, if you give it 1 million, what would you do for it? Most domestic brands may consider using advertising to increase exposure. Recently, CCTV's prime time advertising tenders reached new heights, demonstrating this strategy.

"But most luxury brands will tell you that it will be used to maintain customer relationships." Kristian said that the luxury goods industry is a complex industry with a special business model, even if advertising, is also an image advertisement.

When it comes to Chinese brands, Shen Lifeng believes that many companies are too eager for quick success when they are branding, and they can't wait to see the benefits within a year or two. If it does not work, immediately give up or change jobs. “Many companies are doing business like raising pigs, not doing business like a wife. This is not suitable for luxury brands. Luxury brands need long-term, huge investments.”

According to professional managers who used to serve such top international brands as Hermès and Bottega Veneta, China’s time-honored brand is not short of history and lacks excellent craftsmanship. Many of them have their own values, but “how to make this value concept become shared around the world” The value concept is worthy of in-depth exploration by entrepreneurs; in addition, the brand is also a unity of content and form, and how to express this brand form through the design of world cultural rewards is also worth exploring.”

At the same time, it should also be considered in the form of transmission. “It's like people making friends,” Gao Feng said. “Brands should also appear in the right places to talk to the right groups. These are the old Chinese brands that must be considered when upgrading brands.” Shanghai Jahwa creates a double brand for luxury goods. "Sister", with 30,000 yuan / square meters of decoration, daily rent of 75 yuan / square meter in the luxury hotel in Shanghai Peace Hotel to rent a storefront, and have long-term combat preparations.

"Industry associations can also play a role," Kristian introduced French boutique associations, and organized and managed more than 70 high-end value brands. The association does not participate in the daily operation of these brands, but at the international level, it promotes French luxury goods, or organizes talents such as the law to conduct some lobbying work.

“However, Chinese brands don’t have to rely on their own profits.” CEO of Huha Network, who sells luxury goods, Lian Tingkai, after attending several luxury goods summits, discovered that many luxury brands may be family companies of 20 to 30 people decades ago. , including Hermes, Virgin Atlantic, etc., but now it has become a famous brand.

In the 1980s, Virgin Atlantic was only a series of small-scale store chains and later it gradually developed into a large-scale flagship store. After setting up his own airline, he constantly stood out by providing luxury services in a way that he continued to innovate. For example, providing business class passengers arriving at their destinations with ironing suits; to facilitate passengers to sleep peacefully in flight, in New York - Paris is served before departure but not after boarding.

“Luxury means the innovations that are made in order to increase practicality, increase attractiveness, and ultimately better success, and thus gain grounds for high prices. And whenever it is presented in a different way, it doesn’t matter. , but it can always hit it in." Kristian said.