The word brand comes from the English words brand and trademark, which refers to the brands of horses, cattle and sheep in the Middle Ages to distinguish different breeders. Nowadays, the word brand has become one of the most important keywords in our lives.
First, the concept of tea and product brand
Pu' er tea is famous all over the world and is the name of tea; A few manufacturers with planned economy and historical background of state-owned enterprises have made one or two uncompetitive brands in that particular era, but today they have become the targets of a large number of counterfeiters and even become the currency of Pu 'er tea. Product individuality is very indifferent in consumers' minds. There are many newly registered brands and many kinds. Up to now, there are more than 2,000 Pu 'er tea manufacturers registered in the industrial and commercial departments, and more registered in the trademark department. Except for some slight influence in the industry, there is no brand impression among ordinary end consumers.
Undoubtedly, no matter what characteristics Pu 'er tea has, it is certain that it has become a cultural fashion. Compared with other fashion industries, the operation and marketing of our whole industry is self-evident, but in terms of brand marketing, the gap is self-evident. Many of our Pu 'er tea brands are exposed to the light of the big climate and environment. "It keeps raining and everyone gets wet"-we can't list which manufacturer has obvious modern characteristics in brand marketing, so "having tea without brand" is the first problem of Pu 'er tea brand; So some people say that Yunnan tea is "first-class product, second-rate marketing and third-rate price". This statement is reasonable, but it is still too modest. Seeking truth from facts should be: "Superflow resources, first-class raw materials, second-rate products, third-rate marketing, fourth-rate prices-all because of the fifth-rate brand; The five schools of Pu 'er tea are all because our thoughts are unwilling to integrate with modernity.
Because of this, in 2005, the most influential "caravan entering Beijing" incident in China tea industry greatly attracted the attention of the people of the whole country, which was very good; However, the brand connotation of Pu 'er tea has not been displayed. Therefore, the second step should be to attract the minds of the people of the whole country. Just drinking a cup of tea is not enough.
Paul made shoes, how to meet the strangulation war in China?
What does a company need to do to transform its brand? What should a foreign brand analyze when it enters a new brand field in China? How to formulate the positioning strategy of enterprises in the double strangulation of air and ground? How to use the advantages of the original brand to create a new brand?
As far as the local area is concerned, more and more domestic brands are striding abroad, constantly studying the local market and trying to integrate into foreign consumer culture. Similarly, many world-famous brands that entered China from abroad in the early days are already familiar with the localization of the China market.
Procter & Gamble was founded in Guangzhou, 1988. At present, it has many famous brands in China market, such as Rejoice, Head & Shoulders, Pan Ting, Olay, Hushubao, Ranbo, Tide and Shufujia. It can be said that P&G is a very successful big brother in multi-brand operation. However, Nestle's brand strategy is a horizontal and vertical extension under a parent brand. Nestle mainly produced milk-based baby food in its early days, but now it is the world's largest producer of instant coffee, chocolate and candy, dairy products, baby nutrition and mineral water. Is one of the world's leading producers of ice cream and many other foods and beverages.
Both multi-brand strategy and single-brand extension strategy are of great significance in the process of corporate brand development. Enterprises will face such problems when they become bigger and stronger. This Englishman, who pretends to be an old-school gentleman, took a different road from Procter & Gamble and Nestle in the change of the famous British brand Paul in China, from royal leisure on the golf course to the creation of leather goods, and finally settled on the word leather shoes. What enlightenment can the change of a foreign brand bring to domestic enterprises?
From the water of Nongfu Spring to the beef strips of Mama brand, to the nail fish balls, and then to the research and development of AIDS vaccine ... There are too many traces of Paul on the road of Yangshengtang, and the transformation of Wahaha from water to clothing to daily chemical products also has traces of these enterprises ... What does a brand need to surpass? How can we discard the connotation of new and old brands? Paul's twists and turns may explain some problems.
/kloc-In the late 20th century, polo in the British royal family was in a period of vigorous development, and the style and function of uniforms became a comparison among members of the royal family and a symbol of their status. As a royal designer, Mesdo designed the first professional polo suit for the royal family, which was deeply loved by the British royal family.
In the following ten years, meisdo gave full play to his design talent through continuous innovation and breakthrough in traditional creation, and founded the British Paul brand ——polomeisdo on 1905, which has always been favored by nobles. In order to make the brand go global, the Paul family opened stores in London, Rome and other places on 1945, which set off a wave of polomeisdo frenzy in Europe.
So far, British Paul has been highly praised by middle and senior consumers in Britain, the United States and Southeast Asia, and has gradually gained the support and recognition of some consumers in China market. The development of British Paul brand from golf series to clothing, leather goods and even footwear has been highly concerned by brand builders.
Paul lost the first shoe-making battle.
Although the footwear industry is a traditional labor-intensive industry in the world, it is one of the most competitive industries in China. Since 1990s, the footwear industry in China has developed rapidly. At present, China has become the largest shoemaking country in the world, and the output and export volume of footwear products have ranked first in the world.
Judging from the consumption quantity and market capacity, in recent years, China has consumed nearly 2 billion pairs of shoes every year, which has surpassed the United States'1.600 million pairs, ranking first in the world, and will further expand, with a trend of constantly upgrading the grade. With the development of domestic economy, the consumption trend of footwear products in China is gradually increasing; In the shoemaking industry, with the increase of export share year by year, the share of high-end products in the domestic market is also rising.
It is precisely because of this good market opportunity and the growing development trend that Paul of Britain, combining his own superior resources in leather goods, began to aim at this huge leather shoes market and began a long road of brand transformation. During the nearly ten years' development in China, British Paul mainly focuses on golf products, clothing products and luggage products in leather goods series, and has sales network channels covering large and medium-sized cities in China. Paul's sales staff told reporters that since 2003, Paul has officially entered the leather shoes industry in Britain. In the first six months, Paul of England began to develop, design and produce new leather shoes products with great enthusiasm, and invested huge funds and manpower to distribute the goods to the terminal market in time by using the existing leather goods sales network channels in the shortest time, but unfortunately, the market does not only believe in enthusiasm.
After more than a year, Paul's performance in the leather shoes market was not as good as expected, but showed signs of shrinking. Consumers don't buy this royal brand from Britain, and some British Paul's specialty stores in China have to move their leather shoes to inconspicuous corners. Although Paul, an Englishman, has some marketing experience in China, his brand awareness and recognition in golf series, clothing, leather goods and other fields have been recognized by the market. However, consumers can't find the feeling of this kind of Paul leather shoes from England. This royal brand has encountered unexpected difficulties in its strategic goal of extending to footwear. Give it back?
Paul's shoemaking failed.
At the beginning of 2005, Paul formally appointed Li Jiancong as the head of Paul's new generation footwear business. As the saying goes, a new official takes office with three fires. After Li took office, on the one hand, he improved and improved the details and quality of leather shoes and strengthened the new development, on the other hand, he made great efforts in enterprise management and marketing. The third fire is the rapid introduction of local professional consulting companies as strategic partners to reposition footwear brands, thus opening the second wave of Paul's shoemaking.
For the domestic market, Li Jiancong pays attention to practicing internal strength, and at the same time, his understanding of the market also pays attention to strengthening local awareness. "From the current point of view, the current market situation of footwear products in China mainly has the following characteristics: First, the overall development pattern of footwear products in China is getting better, but the profits of export products will gradually decrease, and the competition in the domestic market will become more and more fierce; Secondly, although China's footwear industry has begun to take shape, behind the scale is chaotic market competition order, uneven product quality and the strength of production enterprises; Finally, under the external pressure, the industry reshuffle is imminent, and the shoe-making industry has entered the era of brand marketing; China's entry into WTO is conducive to the entry of a large number of foreign high-end brands and the growth of joint venture brands jointly produced with large domestic enterprises, which will accelerate the process of industry reshuffle and the role of brands will become increasingly prominent. In view of this, it is meaningful to answer Paul's royal brand in Waterloo, China:
Paul does have a certain popularity in Britain, but this is mainly manifested in golf products. The consumption environment of footwear products is very different from that of golf luxury goods, and the characteristics of people who choose luxury goods and mass consumer goods are also different. Overestimating the market growth momentum of footwear industry and ignoring the consumption psychology and characteristics of consumers of footwear products are the main reasons for the poor extension of Paul brand. Secondly, Paul is not in place when dealing with the relationship between the extended brand and parent brand. For example, the external promotion message of Paul's overall brand in the UK is-Paul is in the UK, highlighting brand honor, while Paul's positioning in leather shoes promotion is still "highlighting brand honor". Although this brand promotion has maintained a consistent brand style, this brand promotion positioning is very general and does not highlight Paul's differentiated style in leather shoes. Therefore, the positioning of leather shoes brand promotion is not accurate enough, and it is also called professionalism. "Differentiated survival is Paul's way out.
Now that we have decided to put the word Paul on the leather shoes, we realize the necessity of understanding the market. How to choose the reference object and how to act becomes the key. To enter this market, the relevant competitive pattern has become a compulsory course. As Paul's consulting company, Li Xiaofeng, general manager of Guangzhitian Company, analyzed that at present, first of all, we must admit the fierce competition and the arrival of the brand era. Since we want to make shoes, we should study the current situation of competitive brands of various footwear products in the market and find out our own positioning. Let's look at the first-line camp: Montague, Crocodile and Goldlion:
Montague Paris an established multinational company founded in 1880, with tens of billions of dollars of assets, and is known as "the long history witness of France". In the past few years, it has made great progress in the global market, especially in Asia and China. Monteggio leather shoes have always been noble, elegant and comfortable, stretching out a calm and calm, emphasizing its proper interpretation. Montagut series products will be priced at high-end price; Its target consumer group is the mature and stable middle class with small achievements; The appeal point of products is dignity and quality; Market characteristics are a mode of resource sharing in various fields under the group brand.
70 years ago, lacoste Shirt Co., Ltd., founded by Mr. Henne lacoste, a famous tennis player who enjoys the reputation of "crocodile", quickly became famous in the world for its knitted shirts with crocodile graphic logo on the left chest. After years of development, the crocodile's commodity category has also expanded from a single tennis and golf sportswear to shoes, belts, perfumes and so on. Its target consumer group is successful and confident men; The product appeal point is a symbol of identity; Advertising slogan-crocodile brand leather shoes, let the first step shine.
As for Ceng Xianzi's Goldlion Group, after more than ten years of continuous innovation, it has successfully established the golden signboard of "Goldlion" in China. Among them, in the field of leather shoes, Goldlion has always followed the joining channel model, focusing on design and technology. Emphasis on the combination of materials and design, and the integration of fashion and taste has now become a symbol of the confidence of men with taste; Its product price is divided into: middle and high-grade price positioning; The target consumers are successful and mature men, and young and enterprising new white-collar workers who advocate individuality; Product appeal points emphasize taste. Judging from several brands in the first-line camp, both popularity and reputation are higher than those of British brand Paul. In the leather shoes market, these brands also occupy more than half of the high-end market.
After knowing your opponent, as an enterprise with mature brand operation experience, how to break through the jungle and get the opportunity of differentiated survival is a fundamental way for an enterprise to make a living!
Is Paul a first-line product or a second-line product?
In addition to the first-line brand platforms such as Crocodile and Goldlion, since 2002, domestic shoe-making enterprises, which have sprung up from Zhejiang and Jinjiang, have quickly realized the transformation from manufacturing factories to brand companies by taking advantage of their scale, thus becoming the second-line army in China's shoe enterprise market. In addition to the strangulation of first-line brands in air combat, Paul, who was airlifted from Britain, also faced the sniper battles of second-line brands such as Senda, Red Dragonfly and Kangnai on land.
How to land safely and avoid snipers has become the key to Paul's comeback. Because the local advantages of second-tier brands are even higher than those of first-tier brands to some extent, how to treat these enterprises will determine whether Paul's sustainable competitiveness can continue.
For the analysis of the second-line brand corps and general manager Li Xiaofeng, we first look at Jiangsu Senda, which was founded in 1977. Twenty years later, Senda became the first well-known trademark in China leather shoes industry; From the analysis of brand connotation, Senda leather shoes pay attention to the combination of oriental traditional culture and western shoemaking art, pursue beauty, comfort, fashion and quality, and constantly introduce advanced western production technology and management experience, which is one of the leading brands in China shoemaking industry at present; And its product range covers high, medium and low consumption levels; The target consumer groups are concentrated in urban middle-income people aged 25-35; And always emphasize the concept of comfort of its products; Through the standard, stable and high-quality product strategy, the company even went out of Asia.
As for the red dragonfly products, it is mainly set at the middle and low prices; Delineate the target consumer groups aged 25-40. This class is full of enthusiasm for life and work, so enterprises pay attention to humanistic care and emphasize emotional induction; In brand building, use franchise stores; With the help of the media-Wenzhou TV Station, the column "Journey of Red Dragonfly" was jointly held, and the Red Dragonfly Scholarship and Red Dragonfly Star Football Match were also used to gain the respect of the market. The cultural brand of "Red Dragonfly" and the marketing channel of "Green Grass Land" are the main guarantees for the success of "Red Dragonfly".
Kangnai's fixed assets are more than 400 million yuan, and its annual production scale reaches more than 7 million pairs. Last year, Kangnai took the initiative to participate in the formulation of international trade rules, and cooperated with SATRA, a British global footwear certification body, to break down technical barriers and help enterprises consolidate their foreign trade foundation and establish their position in the industry. And high-end price positioning; The target consumers are mainly middle and high-level enterprises or private enterprises aged around 30-45; The demand for products that emphasize workmanship and quality makes Kangnai, whose comfort comes from details, stand out.
From the market point of view, the second-tier brands are developing at an amazing speed in China local market, and have obvious advantages in network channels and terminals. Thousands of specialty stores and long-term advertising, coupled with the support of promotional activities, make the mid-range brand leather shoes have a high market share. This market reality poses a difficult problem for Paul's positioning in China.
How to formulate Paul's positioning strategy?
After a comprehensive analysis of the market, as a local consultant of the enterprise, how should Guangzhou Zhitian formulate its strategy? Li Xiaofeng, who has worked for famous American brands such as Wrigley and Tupperware, as well as local enterprises such as Red Dragonfly and Taiwan and Japan, explained Paul's position in detail in the interview.
In the positioning strategy, we must first make clear who this product will be sold to. In other words, we must identify the right consumer groups. The British Paul brand originated from the British royal family, and it has its own aristocratic lineage. The external image gives people the feeling that it is a relatively high-end brand image, so most consumers are middle and senior people with certain spending power, and the age level should be around 28-45 years old; Because Paul's current footwear products are mainly male shoe owners, the target consumers are also men. The occupation of consumers should be located in the management of enterprises and institutions and middle and senior intellectuals. The personality characteristics of these consumer groups are relatively accepted and adapted to the new brands with foreign cultural origins. From the life form, these people pay attention to the quality of life and have their own life plans; From the analysis of consumption characteristics, these groups pay more attention to brand personality and opinions, have higher brand loyalty, and hope to buy products that are worth the money. With these understandings, we have formulated the brand positioning of British Paul leather shoes for the target group: POLOMESIDO has a stable and mature image, a certain western cultural connotation and taste, and is international; Polo Messi's character is refined into introversion, constant pursuit and self-innovation; The brand connotation of POLOMESIDO can be summarized as: a symbol of dignity, comfort, fashion and elegance; The value of POLOMESIDO is concentrated in: paying attention to quality, taste and pursuing higher material and spiritual values of feelings; As a consulting company, any customer stands in front of you, and you should conceptualize and digitize this enterprise from above, so as to have a clear consulting strategy.
Paul, the 1.5 strategy between one and two
Now that we have made clear the competition pattern and our own advantages and disadvantages, everything is ready for how to position ourselves. Li Xiaofeng said that according to the primary development orientation of Yingli in the field of leather shoes and the connotation analysis of its own brand, Yingli's brand orientation can only appear as a follower, that is, a position between the first and second camps.
Although this positioning is below the first-line brand, it is above the second-line brand, because attacking the high-end market not only requires huge investment, but also has great market risks, and it is easy to be wiped out. Putting Paul's shoes in this position has two advantages. One is to avoid confrontation with strong brands with super influence in the first-line camp, and the other is to reduce their own risks in the promotion of leather shoes brands.
Now that the strategy of 1.5 has been determined, the specific market measures can naturally follow. Li Xiaofeng said, after positioning the target group of Paul shoes, in view of these and the brand positioning of Paul shoes given by the consulting company, we adjusted the price lever with strong influence. On the pricing strategy, we divide the terminal selling price of Paul leather shoes into three parts:
The first one, with a price above 800 yuan, is the main product of the advertisement, which is used to show the noble and elegant connotation and image of the brand and strengthen the historical background of POLO MESIDO's British royal aristocratic lineage; The second piece, 300-800 yuan's, is actually the flagship product of the terminal market. According to our market research, if the brand image of high-end leather shoes is formed and the actual product price is not high, consumers will feel value for money when buying, which will invisibly improve their purchasing power; The third, the products below 300 yuan are the main products in the promotion activities; Attract more target consumers to the point of sale;
From the current point of view, the market reaction of British Paul leather shoes conforms to the market strategy formulated by Paul and Zhitian.
How do local consultants serve foreign companies?
The 28 years of reform and opening-up are also the 28 years when western management thoughts were completely instilled in China. Generally speaking, it seems natural for China enterprises to accept foreign consulting services. Therefore, once local enterprises serve foreign companies, it seems a bit abrupt and unprepared. Therefore, the cooperation between Guangzhou Zhitian and British Paul has attracted the attention of journalists. As a foreign-funded enterprise, what steps will Paul take to cooperate with local consultants?
This cooperation can basically be divided into five stages, Li Xiaofeng explained:
The first stage: the communication stage between the two parties. After more than a year of promotion, there has been no great progress. What's the main problem? Is it a product quality problem? Is it a question of brand positioning? Is it a marketing problem? Is it a management problem? Or is it a question of promotion strategy? Reach a consensus and determine how to take the general direction.
The second stage: market research stage, why do you want to conduct market research? Don't just listen to customers, you must fully understand the market, so you must make a field trip. In addition to communication and understanding of the enterprise itself, it is also necessary to conduct research on consumers, online channels, specialty stores, distributors and other aspects. Not only that, but also swot analysis and competitive product analysis.
The third stage: the strategy formation stage. Only with the previous research data and theoretical analysis basis can we make targeted strategic planning according to our own brand characteristics. The whole strategic planning includes six parts: market situation insight, brand development conception, brand positioning, distribution channel construction, advertising promotion strategy and implementation details.
The fourth stage: the implementation stage of the plan, which is implemented according to the guidance of the plan and the specific situation of the market, and then the details are adjusted;
The fifth stage: the effect evaluation stage, which summarizes the implementation of each stage and makes a good effect evaluation.
Of course, the specific implementation also requires consultants to choose a good breakthrough. Zhitian chose one of Paul's business casual shoes as a breakthrough. At present, there are many styles of business casual shoes on the market, but the quality is uneven and the price gap is large. No strong brand is in the dominant position. According to the survey, consumers want to buy business casual shoes firstly for comfort and fashion, secondly for showing their identity, and thirdly for quality assurance and moderate price. Combining the factors that consumers pay attention to when buying, instill the appeal information of product fashion, noble image and value expression into the target group, and adopt different media channels: moderate hard advertising to convey the personalized information of product comfort and fashion; Display the value-for-money information through certain brand value information transmission and unified terminal layout; This shoe has made a great breakthrough, and also opened the road to deep cooperation.