How should an independent designer brand operate? Name and profitability?

In recent days, LVMH's acquisition of Dior, Coach and Kate Spade have occupied the headlines of the fashion industry, but I was attracted by an article titled "The Market Value of the Apparel Industry, Why is a Foundry Enterprise". The article tells the story of Shenzhou International, which has annual sales of 15 billion yuan. This company is the largest manufacturer of knitted garments in China and the main force of Uniqlo, Adidas, Nike and Puma. According to the supplier, the market value of Shenzhou listed in Hong Kong is more than 70 billion Hong Kong dollars. In comparison, the largest market share of A-share clothing listed companies is 40 billion yuan. The newly listed Taiping bird this year is 14 billion yuan. The US and the Annunciation are 10 billion and 5 billion respectively.

Of course, for young independent designers, the market value problem is not the focus of discussion. What we are trying to explain here is that no matter how big or small, there is a strong supplier behind any successful brand, such as Apple is crossing 800 billion US dollars. Behind the market value is Foxconn's huge support, and 3.1 Philip Lim's success also benefits from the production supply chain that its CEO, Wen Zhou, manages. A brand's success requires many factors. From a theoretical point of view, you can talk about 4P (ie, “product, price, channel, promotion”), or you can talk about 5C (ie “customer, cost, convenience, communication, environment”), but in reality It is difficult to achieve long-term success in a product with a bad brand. It is just like the popular online red food. The promotion can have a routine, and the product supply must be strong and management. If something is really bad. If you eat, you won’t have long queues every day.

In China, some independent designer brands are very good at talking with the media and consumers about their feelings and self-expression, but in the end, they will eventually sell products, and there should be a supply chain for products, but it seems that for them, the supply chain The topic of management seems so grand that it is impossible to talk about. As far as the current observations are concerned, the operation of many designer brands is still in the stage of hand workshops. The management has not been efficient with some small garment factories. It is hard to imagine how such designer brands can stand out and lead the fashion trend.

Many designer brands have three high-quality diseases, such as high pricing, high discount, and high order quantity. In the final analysis, their production capacity and sales volume are not running, which requires time and customer accumulation. At the same time, cooperation with suppliers also needs to be slowly combined. Shenzhou International is not a huge empire built in one day. Often designers are easy to complain: no factory is willing to cooperate. In fact, as far as I know, many large factories in the market are very willing to try to cooperate with designer brands. For example, Chenfeng Group opened up to Angel Chen, Fengchen Wang and CJ Yao. Supply chain system. There are also a lot of big factories who are sincerely satisfied with young designers. If they say that eight or ten orders can't be put on the assembly line, they will use the sample room to produce. They hope that by supporting young designers, they hope that the order volume will gradually increase in the future. Instead of always making small noises.

The reality is that designers often worry about the factory, can not show their creativity, feel that the factory is too far away, think that the factory owner is not good communication, and even despise the factory is not fashionable. But what needs to be clear is that these factories in China support the fashion industry all over the world. They are integrated into the global supply chain and operate according to the actual rules of the fashion industry. The Chinese supply chain has been able to complete most of the current high standards. The production of clothing is in sync with the international, rather than the “farming” era in which the designer brand is located. In the specific operation, there are many aspects worthy of designer brand learning.

For example: the most important is the delivery date. From the perspective of the supply chain, the delivery date is also part of the value of the product. If you miss the time of sale that can be sold, then the best products are also discounted. The core of fast fashion is to shorten the Lead Time (the time from order to delivery). The designer brand that should have been at the forefront of fashion has already made consumers and the media play in the first half of the year. If it is delayed, then What fashion is there?

Another example: fabric. From the perspective of foreign trade orders, if the zipper of the seal is reversed, it is known that this is wrong, but the production of large goods must be reversed. This is the contractual rule. However, there have been some designer brands who have received orders, but found that the fabrics used in the sample clothes are not available for purchase, so they have to replace the large-scale fabrics privately. This kind of thing has a high risk of compensation in the taboo of international trade rules. . So, how do designers guarantee fabrics? To be frank, they must prepare fabrics in advance, especially those that want to be able to run. It is necessary to make some reserves under the estimated conditions, and the fabrics can speed up their speed. Even if the sewing process can be expedited, no fabric is like no rice, no delivery or no product.

For most designers, be aware of a very important principle: delivery on time and quality. On time, in addition to not delaying the delivery date, there is another meaning. In case it is easy to produce early, is it necessary to send the product to the customer earlier? If it is not approved by the customer, it is not recommended. Do, because the customer may not have local warehousing, or the warehousing needs extra cost, but it is easy to do bad things.

For many young designers, it seems that these issues are common sense in pediatrics. But unfortunately this is the situation that is encountered every day in this industry, and it is a thorny problem that will be encountered in actual operation. Here, I believe that independent designers who are not learning to use China's high-quality and efficient production resources cannot truly influence the fashion trend in the future to truly brand designers. Young designers should start from now on. The factory is going, trying, and running in, and the future growth engine comes from this.

For more information, please pay attention to the world clothing and footwear network information report.