Production | Tiger Sniff Business Group
Author ｜ Fang Yu Gegen Tanner
Title map ｜ Interviewer provided
After the Spring Festival, Zhou Shaoxiong’s circle of friends is full of seasonal flavor. Even on the 38th Goddess Festival, the menswear brand Seven Wolves was not absent. Chairman Zhou Shaoxiong promoted the company in the circle of friends to show a group of pictures of models wearing animal protection themed T-shirts, with a small program. Selling goods in the circle of friends was very common last year, but during this time, Zhou Shaoxiong’s move to take the lead in selling goods had a different meaning than in the past.
The epidemic cut the original world into countless “isolated spaces” and bumped the waist of seven wolves. “ This year is definitely the hardest year we have encountered in this industry.” Zhou Shaoxiong told Tiger Sniff. The epidemic has also made many people a community. On the production line of the seven wolves, the production line used to make garments began to produce masks. This is a response to the epidemic, and an instinctive reaction of a native brand that has gone through 30 years.
The epidemic has hit a lot of industries, so that leading catering companies like Xibei have to speak out for help through the media. Compared with the catering industry, the situation of the local clothing industry is slightly different. “The cash flow of the seven wolves is no problem.” Zhou Shaoxiong said. Although the revenue will be affected, the cash reserves of the seven wolves have always been relatively adequate.
However, this is still the most critical moment in the history of Seven Wolves. How to break through the bottleneck of the development of Chinese domestic clothing brands, and how to adapt to a new generation of consumers and new consumption trends. This is a question that Zhou Shaoxiong has been thinking about. Now we must add how to deal with the cyclical effects of the epidemic. Three exam questions, one more serious than the other. In a sense, this is also a question that all local clothing brands need to answer.
The boss takes the lead, and all the employees of the company sell goods in the circle of friends. This is just an appearance. The deeper meaning is that selling goods to all employees internally is not only facing the global marketing changes brought about by network technology, but also can lead all members of the company to the new retail system of community marketing; externally, in response to the epidemic situation, Cater to the changing needs of a new generation of consumers in the longer term.
Seven wolves as a local clothing brand, based on men’s clothing, and wolf as the brand totem. There is no doubt that this brand has Zhou Shaoxiong’s personal color. So many online business photos of Zhou Shaoxiong can almost be used as the endorsement photos of the seven wolves. Zhou Shaoxiong originally worked at Xinhua Bookstore, and later founded the “Seven Horses.” His personal personality genes and era branding were more or less integrated into his branding. Starting from scratch and struggling hard, that is also the common ground of the first generation of entrepreneurs at the beginning of reform and opening up. At that time, the concepts of brands, markets, and supply chains that often hang around in today’s clothing circles were still far away and vague.
Zhou Shaoxiong, Chairman of the Seven Horses Group
In 2017, the seven wolves announced the formal completion of the acquisition of Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld’s eponymous brand KARL LAGERFELD, acquiring 80.1% of Karl Lagerfeld’s equity at a transaction price of 320 million yuan, and responsible for the brand’s presence in Greater China. Operational work.
Acquisition can bring a native Chinese clothing company to the world and complete the international transition? The problem is certainly not so simple. In recent years, there are not a few service companies that use capital to make overseas acquisitions. Where does Zhou Shaoxiong want to take the seven wolves?
The Everbright Securities Textile and Garment team pointed out in a survey note: The company’s thinking is to develop towards the goal of the Garment Group. KL (Karl Lagerfeld) itself has a cultural appeal, and the seven wolves major brands will not lower their positioning and do cheaper routes. Consumers have accumulated feelings about the seven wolves. What the company has to do is to pay attention to the seven wolves.Entering new vitality, increasing the appeal to younger groups, and continuing to maintain the spiritual appeal of the seven wolves brand to consumers, this is the positioning and development of the main brand of seven wolves.
In the past 30 years, the entire Chinese clothing industry has continuously learned from the world’s advanced level in terms of supply chain, manufacturing technology, and corporate management. By studying the supply chain innovation of brands such as fast fashion, Chinese clothing brands have solved the problem of efficiency; the advanced level of corporate governance has changed the workshop management of many clothing companies. However, the proposition of how to create a high-quality, global brand has always been the Everest of Chinese clothing companies that have not yet reached the top.
Fashion brands are the carrier of fashion trends. And fashion itself is unpredictable. Especially in the age of social networks, the kind of unexpected epidemic described in “Tipping Point” seems to be happening all the time. Is it fashionable? What needs to be changed and which genes need to be inherited in a company that has been in business for 30 years?
It is undeniable that the aesthetics of the times are changing, so that men can have feminine beauty and seriousness can also have hip-hop style. Zhou Shaoxiong emphasized that it was wrong for the seven wolves to become hip-hop. The “rigid and flexible” nature of the wolf is what Zhou Shaoxiong always insists on.
“ The popular way of society will change to some extent, so its expression may not be so accurate. But one thing can be confirmed, we are a company with the concept of fashion. Fashion needs to be very A good cultural gene can penetrate, and it can penetrate the time limit and form a better sediment. “Zhou Shaoxiong said. In Zhou Shaoxiong’s view, fashion is a cultural expression that advances with the times and an evolution of aesthetics. It requires people’s grasp of art, trends, and the emotions of the times.
The tone of the brand cannot be lost, but it does not mean that the figure cannot be soft. Like many clothing brands, although the e-commerce channel is already extremely developed, the seven wolves still attach great importance to the contact function of offline stores, but this main channel of communication has been cut off by the epidemic.
What should I do? New retail is on the agenda. New retail is not a new concept for the retail industry, but it means a new opportunity and image for today’s seven wolves. Seven wolves hope to be able to directly reach their target users and use the circle of friends to sell goods, which is only part of the means. Behind it is the change of the entire company’s operating system and thinking.
This is not only a challenge for the company’s operation management, but also a new proposition for Zhou Shaoxiong himself. Now positioning himself as “fashion” and “investment”, he seems to be deliberately obscuring the role of “boss”. He needs wide acceptance, And the “boss mentality” itself may be an obstacle. Because of this, he often appears in the apparel industry as an investor, hoping to use his industry experience and connections to find some different spaces for the seven wolves. “We hope to strengthen the alliance and use the supply chain, management, and cash flow of the seven wolves to provide bottom-level support for some elite young entrepreneurs.” This may be another way Zhou Shaoxiong found to keep the company young.
Seven wolves now choose to carry out active mergers, acquisitions and investments based on a well-known major brand, hoping to eventually form a multi-brand group with investment + industry as their main business.
The clothing market is a normal Red Sea market and a normal blue sea market. Zhou Shaoxiong believes that “fashion is a created consumer. As long as you have a good concept, you can be different from others. So many small-scale blue oceans will continue to emerge in this big red sea market. When the small blue sea market meets The outbreak point can continue to expand, and the two will fade away. “
For brands, 30 years sounds like an iconic node. For the seven wolves, the longer the time, the easier it is to find out. It is difficult to find a new blue ocean in a market where the consumption wave is changing rapidly and the competition is extremely fierce. This is the 30-year itch of a national clothing brand, and it is also a difficult problem for every traditional retail company that is being affected by the epidemic and the transformation of industry channels.
The following is the essence of Tiger Sniff interview with Zhou Shaoxiong:
Tiger Sniff: At the current stage, consumption in the clothing industry is feeling suppressed due to channel reasons. Will there be a retaliatory rebound after the epidemic?
Zhou Shaoxiong: Depression exists to some extent. Apparel fashion is a logic of freshness consumption. The entire market supply is sufficient and excessive. The core lies in whether each brand has stepped on the hotspot in terms of marketing or rebates innovation, and can launch products that meet market sentiment. Are there core products in the brand itself? Whether it is quality, culture, technology, story, concept, is there anything special about it? Can it get more consumers’ recognition of brand positioning?
Each brand will have its own positioning, so in the process of positioning the product, it must be consistent with the overall trend and changes in consumer sentiment, so that the products can truly return to the so-called retaliatory Consumption concept.
Tiger Sniff: What are the self-rescue measures taken by the seven wolves at this stage? Look at your circle of friends also selling seven wolves. What do you think of the impact of new retail on the apparel industry?
Zhou Shaoxiong: We launched “all-person marketing” in this Spring Festival. All members of the company have different sales goals, and use WeChat community, small programs and other tools to complete online sales. Through various online sales methods, good sales results have been obtained, so there is still room for online sales. Mainly rely on everyone to work hard to innovate, find ways to organize the community, and then everyone comes to recommend some products to our consumers, because our brand may still have some fans who have accumulated for 30 years, so if this event is launched, There are also obvious effects.
In essence, new retail is the development of the Internet that has changed business infrastructure. What is a change in business infrastructure? In the past, there was only one latitude sales channel, which was the traditional offline channel. Now there are many “air channels” and “virtual channels” spawned by the Internet. This new channel form is completely different from the previous operation form.
In fact, in the past two years, we have been consciously making internal adjustments to the channel changes brought about by new retail. The first is to reform the management logic of the sales system and add online community marketing and promotion to the traditional channel marketing; The second is to change the thinking of the entire company. In addition to changes in business formats, adjustments are also made in organizational management.
Tiger Sniff: How did the seven wolves do it? In the era of PC e-commerce, physical companies encountered many challenges when doing online and offline same price, that is, the problem of left and right hands and mutual blogs. Will it still be encountered in the era of mobile Internet? Simply put, a sale happened, who is it?
Zhou Shaoxiong: In the traditional apparel retail scene, the store’s traffic is a certain natural traffic generated based on the geographical location, which is then “converted” to sales by the store staff. In the online scenario, the traffic comes from precise advertising drainage, and the second is that each employee can form a natural traffic entrance. Active employees can bring more traffic and form a higher conversion rate.
In the past, our offline channel was the “store manager responsibility system”, which adopted a fixed salary plus a commission salary in terms of employee incentives. Now it is to divide the specific situation of each store, mainly based on the store product structure system, and adopt different management methods for different types of stores and staff. Because we are a brand that has been deposited for 30 years, all adjustments and changes are impossible”One size fits all.” Therefore, we have divided according to the situation of our stores. According to the structure of our store products, different stores adopt different management methods based on the characteristics of employees.
But I think the integration of online and offline channels is inevitable in the future, and we will not distinguish them completely. But there are some methods, such as the management of the community, Whether online or offline, they must be a good community Management.
Tiger Sniff: Seven wolves acquired Chanel’s original design director and well-known designer Karl Lagerfeld’s own company in Greater China in 2017, but from the financial report point of view, currently Still losing money. What is your plan for the operation of this brand?
Zhou Shaoxiong: The previous loss is very normal. We need a period of time to digest the original inventory of the KARL LAGERFELD brand, adjust the original poorly located stores, and also need to build a new team , Launch the product together with the brand’s R & D team in Europe.
Seven wolves have taken over KARL LAGERFELD, and now they have increased more than a dozen sales outlets, and the overall brand sales and single store sales are increasing. In fact, in the three or five years after the completion of the acquisition, certain payouts and investments are inevitable.
What we bought is not just a brand named KARL LAGERFELD, but a unique big IP-this designer is the unique and respected designer in the fashion industry. His personal image, manners and manners And the works created can become the source of future creation for this brand. For consumers, what they buy is “a story” and is the designer’s idea.
Tiger Sniff: Will the seven wolves continue to take the road of mergers and acquisitions in the future? What is your overall plan for the Seven Horses Group?
Zhou Shaoxiong: From a global perspective, all fashion groups must become multi-brand groups if they want to grow. The seven wolves do the same. In addition to the main brand, we also separately created the high-end menswear line Wolf Totem (wolf totem) to create a sub-brand. This brand also has a show in Milan Fashion Week; in terms of acquisition, we Acquired French tide brand 16N, 20Acquired KARL LAGERFELD in 17 years.
In the future, we will continue to look for good brand targets for investment and mergers and acquisitions. When looking for a target, you may first focus on clothing and accessories brands with strong fashion attributes; secondly, you will also pay attention to categories with technical content, such as special clothing materials with underlying technical support, which can play a better protective role in sports. For example, we will also pay attention to this single-product brand; third, we are also considering the cultivation and incubation of some start-up brands. M & A in one hand and incubation in the other.
For the products of the main brand of the seven wolves, it is still necessary to make products with relatively high cost performance. It is more practical and practical, so we will strengthen the inherent competitiveness of our products and make them more functional. We don’t express it in the fashion trend completely, but it will integrate into the fashion expression form, and at the same time it is more practical and functional.
This is also because of the attributes of the menswear category itself. Female consumers may pay more attention to fashionableness when buying women’s clothing. Relatively speaking, men’s fashion sensitivity is not so high, but consumers’ loyalty to the brand is higher, so men’s clothing should focus on building brand and product quality.
Tiger Sniff: For younger men, the pursuit of fashion is still very high. What do you think of young consumers?
Zhou Shaoxiong: The so-called fashion is sometimes fleeting and fleeting. As a brand, it must have its own clear mark and a spirit of its own. So we’ll pull it back, our underlying stuff is classic. But our form of expression must be the expression of young people. There can be many new and fashionable elements. The shooting method can be very fashionable, and the communication language can be done immediately. We expect to be able to build and compare product structure forms across ages.
So this is the future development of the seven wolves. We cannot express ourselves as a trend, specialized fast fashion, or a hip-hop style, these things are not the underlying genes and characteristics of our product brand.
So what we have been shaping is that men have more than one side. They are called rigid and flexible called wolf. They must have a spirit of struggle for work and care for their families. In addition, it must be an optimistic and positive brand image.
Tiger Sniff: What do you think of the phenomenon of fast fashion clothing brands closing stores and even exiting the Chinese market in the past year or two?
Zhou Shaoxiong: I think fast fashion is a highly Red Sea product logic. Paying attention to “fast”, the product volume is often too large. So when there are too many brands, too many products, fast pace, and fast discounts, the competition between brands and brands is too fierce, so the market supply relationship will soon be saturated. In the end, the surviving brand must have stronger intrinsic brand characteristics, stronger organizational management and financial management capabilities.
Of course, in the world, fast fashion still has a lot of room for development, and the total sales can still increase to a certain extent, but the problem is that too many people come in. Therefore, supply growth is greater than consumption growth.
The clothing market is a normal red sea, but at the same time a normal blue sea. Why is the normal blue ocean? Because fashion is a created consumer, as long as you find a point that most competitors don’t find, it is special enough to open up a new small market. Therefore, in this big Red Sea market, many small-scale Blue Sea markets can continue to emerge.
Tiger Sniff: You have been in this industry for 30 years. In the past 30 years, major changes have taken place in the consumption habits, population structure and other aspects of the entire society. Are there any challenges for you personally?
Zhou Shaoxiong: In the past thirty years, there are many places to be proud of, but there are also many places to review. Especially now that the epidemic situation is coming, I think this year is definitely the most difficult year we have encountered in this industry.
Some of the difficulties we have predicted are called new retail. Networking includes changes in social patternsThe change brought about by the transformation of commercial infrastructure, from traditional channels in the past in a single dimension, to the current air channels, or virtual channels, and various new channel forms promoted by the Internet. The challenge is, can our mindset change? This is not just a change in business format, but a lot of changes have taken place in the organization and management of enterprises.
Second, we used to do things ourselves. From focusing on one brand to developing multiple brands, this is the challenge for us. In the future, if we want to develop multiple brands, we need a new talent team training and cooperation method. If we don’t cooperate with investment methods, we will continue to invite people in the past, and we will only cultivate him as a project leader. I think if he is not the boss, he will not work with you.
So if there are more brands in the future, we will have to accommodate more bosses into our system. I myself am not an absolute 100% boss. I may be a partner of these bosses. This is the challenge we will face in the future.