Analysis of what is missing in Chinese clothing brands and enterprises

What are the perplexities and ills of Chinese apparel companies in the value chain? Why does China's clothing brand always feel worthless? Chinese apparel companies have been working hard. Why has there been no fundamental change in the status of the value chain?

In the apparel value chain, the accepted profit distribution structure is: design accounts for 40%, marketing accounts for 50%, and production accounts for 10%. That is, design and marketing are at the high end of the value chain, production and processing are at the lower end of the value chain, and high-end people living in the value chain are controlling the value chain.

At present, China's garment industry is at the low end of the global value chain.

Obviously, China's garment industry needs a strategic transformation, and it needs to be modeled from the industrial chain to the value chain; Chinese apparel brands need to be transformed and require the sublimation of the soul.

However, the apparel industry chain is relatively long and it is necessary to make breakthroughs in many aspects in order to better shape the value chain. What are the perplexities and ills of Chinese apparel companies in the value chain? Why does China's clothing brand always feel worthless? Chinese apparel companies have been working hard. Why has there been no fundamental change in the status of the value chain?

The most lack of brand value Chinese clothing brands and companies are the most missing?

"Soft power! Our comprehensive hard power is not bad. The core of value creation is soft power, which is the brand value." Chen Dapeng, executive vice president of the China Garment Association, said, "What support is it? The most important thing is culture and culture. It depends on history."

“The fashion industry needs time to accumulate, and brands need cultural heritage.” Miao Hongbing, chairman of Beijing White Collar Fashion Co., Ltd., said that foreign high-end brands have a history of at least 890 years, and Chinese fashion industry has less than 20 years of concept of fashion. Therefore, there are certainly many problems in branding and other aspects.

The most important issue is the brand's lack of value support. “Chinese clothing brands have not yet formed a root of value support, and the core of supporting value is a unique brand culture. Winning respect in people's hearts is the most important symbol of brand value.” said Xia Hua, chairman of Beijing Yiwen Group.

This is related to the background of the growth of Chinese apparel companies.

In Xia Hua’s view, Chinese garment companies have experienced problems since the early days of development, because most entrepreneurs are making clothes in a mentality of survival. Their goal is to change their destiny. Making money is the result. Brands are only processes and paths. This is exactly the opposite of European practitioners, so what we are seeing now is European luxury goods.

Breaking away from the global value chain China's garment industry has developed under the background of the transfer of global major industries and has established an industrial system. Chen Dapeng said: “But now we are facing transformation and upgrading. We must move from manufacturing to a strong country and from quantitative manufacturing to value creation. Through the creation of value in the industrial chain, we can make the garment industry go higher in the value chain. This is the process of upgrading the industry chain, and it is also worth The process of improving and building chains."

Judging from the layout and structure of the domestic apparel industry, it is concentrated in the eastern coastal areas, of which Shandong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Guangdong account for 80% of the apparel industry in China; more than 10,000 companies above the scale account for the industry’s output value. 70%, but exports accounted for only 30%, and 70% of the exports are borne by 90% of SMEs. With the increase in the overall cost, the transfer of industries to the midwest in China is a major trend, and some of them may be transferred to other developing countries.

Although China's garment industry has the characteristics of industrial clusters, associated resource clusters are also conducive to maximizing efficiency, and its late-comer advantages have not yet been fully realized, but this does not fundamentally change our collapse in the global value chain. Major domestic brand manufacturers such as Youngor (600177) have begun to control the apparel value chain in the domestic market. However, these private brands still have difficulty establishing a foothold in the international market and have little control over the global value chain.

The collective lack of self-confidence has a common phenomenon in China's garment industry: the proliferation of foreign names. Many Chinese clothing brands always want domestic consumers to recognize it as a Chinese brand.

Behind this phenomenon, it reflects the overall self-confidence of practitioners and consumers. The lack of self-confidence in enterprises stems from the frustration of market competition – if one says that he is a foreign brand, “competitiveness” seems to improve immediately; conversely, to say that he is a local brand, not only will the collaborators exert pressure, but consumers will not buy it. Designers are also not confident, afraid to let go of bold designs. However, this lack of self-confidence is ultimately due to the consumer's lack of self-confidence – wearing a foreign brand or luxury goods is decent and identifiable. "When the Chinese wear a very bad dress, there is no problem, the Chinese are very confident." Miao Hongbing said.

Another very important reason is that in the past we overemphasized that China was a big country and caused the country’s external image to have no fashion concept. Can a country without a fashion concept make fashion stuff? It makes sense for others to have suspicions.

Therefore, in order to obtain its proper position in the value chain, Chinese clothing brands cannot simply imitate and must make their own personalities. Miao Hongbing said: "Imitating will drown individuality. From the perspective of long-term development, this is equivalent to chronic suicide. To cultivate self-confidence, we still need time."

Without the right to speak in the fashion industry, the trick of Chinese apparel companies is that they do not have the right to speak at the end of the brand, they can't speak at the design end, and they can only struggle at the production and processing end. China's garment industry has almost lost its right to speak in the world fashion industry.

"Current fashion trends are based on the information released by Europe and the United States." Cheng Weixiong, vice president of Meibang Clothing (002269, stocks), said, "It is not yet possible that we want to exceed the original capabilities of Europe and the United States. China has not really formed its own. Clothing culture is still subject to Europe and the United States.”

This is the cruel reality faced by the Chinese clothing industry. The world's competitive fashion has long been formed. France, Italy, Britain, the United States, and other European and American countries are in a monopoly position. This is history.

“There are no world-class talents, no world-class design masters, no people who can influence the world’s fashion discourse right. This is not the sadness of the Chinese garment industry, but the national tragedy.” Miao Hongbing said, “China must really have a presence in the fashion industry. With influence, our generation is unlikely to achieve this, only after two or three generations. Therefore, do not give the Chinese fashion industry so much pressure that it will take time to change.”

The design ability is flawed If the product quality is no problem, then the design and development is the soul of the product and the brand.

"The design and development of China's garment industry has remained at the plagiarism and imitation stage. Enterprises that do well have only just started to have their own style." Wang Jianjun, general manager of Busen Clothing Co., Ltd. said: "The market is changing so fast. The environment has made everyone become impetuous. It is difficult to calm down and study the changes in the entire garment industry. It is even more difficult for the brand to settle. No one wants to spend too much time on the high end of the value chain."

Xia Hua also believes that there are too few subversive designs that are truly original in China's garment industry, and they are all micro-innovations in design. Obviously, micro-innovation cannot really influence the world fashion world, nor can it change our position in the design side of the value chain.

In fact, we are not only lacking in original capacity, but also in our ability to convert. "A lot of things are purely plagiarism and imitation. They are led by European and American styles and winds from Japan and South Korea. They don't have their own design personality, and they don't have their own branding. If you remove the trademark, you don't know who it is." Cheng Weixiong said. "Insufficient conversion capacity will make it difficult to quickly respond to the market. Transformation is not simply imitating or plagiarizing, but it is about integrating into something of your own."

In the final analysis, it is still a human problem.

Xia Hua believes that our designers lack endurance and cannot concentrate on doing things. They also lack the basic skills to integrate the culture left by their ancestors into their own thoughts and integrate them into the experience. What's even more tangled is that he does not have the experience of high-end customers. It is like people who haven’t played golf to design clothes for golfers. In Miao Hongbing's view, Chinese culture is quite satisfactory. This way of thinking is very different from the creation of fashion art, which also limits people's creativity.

In fact, the design of domestic clothing brands is more focused on the single design of running capacity, and can only stay in the local thinking. The internationalized design pays more attention to the preliminary planning and overall thinking, because it can point the way for subsequent design projects.

The brand's difficulty in attracting respect for marketing is also a shortcoming for Chinese garment companies.

This short board is finally presented in the brand building that insists on the details. Wang Jianjun said: "Excellence and attention to detail is an attitude of branding, and we often think: almost on the line."

Broad brand positioning, lack of professionalism, lack of depth, and homogenization are common problems in China's clothing brands. In the realm of brand operation, the gap between us and world-class brands is very clear. For example, Louis? Vuitton's exhibition of art tours in the National Museum is an approach to promotion. It is not just a brand point of view, but rather a brand-name tour in the fashion industry. Chinese clothing brands dare not do so at such a high price, and they still hope to spend a small sum of money to do big things. However, making high-end brands requires long-term investment and needs comprehensive strength as support.

In terms of terminal management, we still stay in the state of the garment enterprises, and have not risen to the status of clothing brands. Miao Hongbing said: “Many brands in China don’t care about the terminal image. Even if they do something, they can’t afford to torture. For example, visiting a brand-name store and visiting an ordinary store will bring different experiences. The brand-name store will definitely make you feel oppressed. Forcing you to not indulge, this atmosphere allows you to have a sense of respect for it.The ordinary shop gives you a sense of indulgence, and it is difficult for you to respect it.Chinese brands are really difficult for consumers to respect in the terminal.This will cause us to The industry pays enough attention.”

The supply chain is in a fragmented state The rapid response capability of many garment companies in China's supply chain is far from the large international companies. This has a lot to do with the fragmentation of our supply chain.

"This is not because Chinese garment companies do not work hard, but are constrained by the big environment, and also related to the enterprise market operating system. There are many domestic companies to join the agency, while foreign big names do more on their own." Cheng Weixiong said, "This should be The market needs to do the value chain, but we still do more from their own needs to do the value chain or supply chain. Production, design, procurement and other aspects of the supply chain are in a separate state of the operator."

In reality, the process of domestic apparel companies is driven from top to bottom, and it is a traditional planned operation process. It does not really play a role in the transformation of the entire value chain or supply chain. Obviously, this is not conducive to the rapid response of companies to the market. For example, domestic clothing brand merchants generally complete orders within half a year in advance, and are short and fast, converting all the products to retailers, resulting in more normal goods, less popular goods, and finally causing pressure on goods, resulting in market supply and demand. Cannot coordinate. Cheng Weixiong said: "Do you say that this can make goods popular? Companies will find it very difficult to solve this problem. It takes time to change."

In the face of a disadvantageous situation in the global apparel value chain, Chinese garment companies need to take the courage to reshape the value chain, change their position in the value chain, and make Chinese apparel brands win true social respect.

Enterprises can start from the core links of design, marketing, and strategy of the value chain to find solutions to the problems.

Design is rooted in improving design and development capabilities, and it needs to maintain appropriate long-term investment. Under this premise, Chinese garment companies can also focus on the following aspects:

Cultivate the designer's strong heart. “When I deal with foreign designers, I find that drinking coffee can never be delayed. This is the life of people, that is, slow culture, and slow work.” Xia Hua, chairman of Beijing Yiwen Group, said with deep feeling, “In addition, Even if he is not a big-name designer, he will have pride in his heart."

In Xia Hua’s view, domestic designers have different values ​​from their lifestyles to their inner hearts. The things that foreign designers have designed may not all be easy to sell, but they all have full confidence. Most of the designers in China still design for survival. If this design is not done well, it may be beaten by the boss and the bonus will not be available. Therefore, companies should give designers enough respect, because it takes a long process to cultivate the confidence of designers.

Do a good job of design system management. Design and development is a systematic project, which includes both the preliminary planning and overall layout, as well as the design and development itself, as well as the system marketing of the finished products. These systems need to be managed systematically. Otherwise, they are easily disconnected from each other. Domestic garment companies often only pay attention to the amount of product running, which is obviously not conducive to the continuous development of design and development and the added value of brand value.

Improve conversion capabilities. This can make up for the lack of original capabilities. Without original design and development capabilities, companies can transform on the basis of imitation, combined with the needs of Chinese culture and consumers, but this transformation needs to include their own original content, but it is not 100% original. For example, according to popular trends and market needs to do some style design, increase the technical content in the product, if converted into place, you can also achieve the effect of increasing the added value.

Optimize design palette mode. As a medium-to-high-end garment company, designers dominate the garment plate types more generally, and there are also owners of the design's laymen to dominate the garment pattern. Enterprises can further improve and optimize design selection methods to avoid unnecessary risks.

Marketing is a marketing strategy that promotes the value of apparel brands. It should focus on solving the three major issues of brand culture, segmentation, and channel utilization.

Gradually full brand culture connotation. The transition from low value-added to high value-added clothing brands requires a process, and brands need the continuous accumulation of cultural heritage. Xia Hua believes that the current time of China's clothing brands is still too short, "so we must do a good job of cultural grafting and turn China's unique culture into an intrinsic part of the brand, thus building a brand value support system. As long as the logic of cultural grafting If it is reasonable, and persists in doing it, one day it will be successfully grafted."

In the process of enriching the brand culture, companies should also pay special attention to details and integrate the details into the blood of the brand, making it an important part of the brand culture.

Product segmentation and brand extension have degree. Apparel products also have a life cycle and market radiance. The product segmentation introduced by the market segmentation is a matter of course, thus achieving brand extension. Wang Jianjun, general manager of Busen Clothing Co., Ltd., said: “There will not be so many brands in the future. There will be some iconic brands. The positioning of the brand will be more precise, professional, and subdivided than it is now.”

Of course, companies should also soberly realize that brand extension and licensing business is also a double-edged sword of brand value increase and decrease. The world-famous brand Armani took a brand extension strategy, built a huge brand pyramid, and adopted an authorized business to expand its product line, and repurchased a long-term cooperation with OEM factories and some franchisees to strengthen the control of production and channel links. force. These practices quickly amplify the brand's influence, but too long product lines and excessive brand extensions also dilute the high-end image of its brand to a large extent, resulting in the damage to its brand value.

Innovative channel model. Without affecting the brand positioning, companies can try to change the format of the business. When Uniqlo, H&M, ZARA and other brands entered the Chinese market, they introduced the concept of a store, and adopted a supermarket-based self-service shopping approach, which also caused domestic consumers to favor. In addition, many clothing companies are trying to build an e-commerce platform, but independent or outsourcing depends on their own actual situation, the general high-end clothing brands take the initiative to operate mostly.

The strategy is to achieve a favorable position in the global apparel value chain and the domestic apparel value chain. Enterprises can consider the following aspects at the strategic level –

Industrial chain integration innovation. “The entire industry environment is forcing us to raise the level in design, R&D, branding, marketing, etc. We can no longer simply rely on the OEM approach. Otherwise, we will die. In the international market, the Chinese apparel industry needs to seek new positioning.” Chen Dapeng said. Italy's industrial clusters have assembled a group of small and medium-sized enterprises. They cooperate with big brands and are very professional. However, they have been very vigilant about the development of Chinese companies in the upper end of the value chain. They fear that in the future, single companies or single professionals will not compete with Chinese companies. Therefore, they In the integration of the industry chain, in order to enhance their competitiveness, to ensure the inherent position in the global value chain.

Similarly, if China's apparel brands want to come out, it would be very difficult without the support of a very good international supply chain. "To create a supply chain process, it is necessary to form a management process system from the bottom up, and be in line with international standards. This is what China's garment companies lack," Cheng Weixiong said.

Cut from the high end into the global value chain. The long-term export-oriented strategy of the Chinese garment industry intentionally or unintentionally guided domestic garment companies to rely on low-level elements to enter the global value chain, and to enter the global low-end demand market in the form of OEM.

According to the empirical research findings of foreign researchers Gereffi, in the global apparel value chain, four sequential upgrade paths are followed: process upgrade, product upgrade, function upgrade, and chain upgrade. There are also studies that show that there is room for rapid upgrades in the two stages of process upgrades and product upgrades, while functional upgrades and chain upgrades are difficult to break through because the latter two upgrades mean establishing a dominant position in the global value chain.

Therefore, apart from taking the path from OEMs to ODMs and OBMs to upgrade their position in the value chain, Chinese apparel companies can also take a direct approach from the high end into the global value chain, and thus directly participate in the global value chain. In competition. This will help improve the Chinese apparel industry's right to speak in the world fashion industry. Some local high-end apparel companies have already made such attempts.