Source: Economic Daily
"I'm sorry, 'Li Bai's ' skin' Feng QiuHuang is too sought-after, this series of men's shoes is the largest and smallest left..." Walking into the century-old store in Qianmen Avenue, Beijing, the clerk was pointing to a pair of cloth shoes and apologetically telling customers. This is a co-branded cloth shoe in cooperation with a well-known mobile game, and the delicate phoenix embroidery on the upper is spread out.
"The horse on the top of the head is juyuan, the foot is inline and rising, the body is dressed in Rui Xiangxiang, and the waist is wrapped around the four great constants." This folk song reflects the place of the old brand in the hearts of old Beijingers. In August last year, Neiliansheng opened its first life experience store in Beijing's ChangyaoTianjie Shopping Center, breaking the stereotype of "three-foot counter", focusing on the national trend and national style, and showing the unique charm of handmade cloth shoes in a way that young people like.
"The mobile game co-brand cloth shoes have made a total of more than 2,000 pairs, and now there are less than 70 pairs left, and gamers are the main force in purchasing." Cheng Xu, deputy general manager of Neiliansheng Shoes Co., Ltd., said. In the view of the person in charge of the "post-80s" long-established brand, many young people feel that the "old-fashioned brand" is more suitable for the elders, and their aesthetic requirements and living habits are far away. "Exploring the transformation of brand rejuvenation while adhering to tradition is one of the most important tasks of Inline Sheng at present." Cheng Xu said.
The old brand touches the "tide"
The main comfort, the production of boots inline has a strict standard of craftsmanship. The advantages of "uniqueness" such as handmade and intangible cultural heritage make the brand have a strong cultural flavor. Inline has 4 main product lines such as handmade cloth shoes, handmade leather shoes, cold adhesive cloth shoes and cold adhesive leather shoes, of which handmade cloth shoes account for 60% of sales.
A 168-year-old century-old store, what new tricks can it come up with? Cheng Xu didn't have a bottom at the beginning.
In 2018, in order to attract young people to approach the old brand and understand the old brand, Neilian Sheng made efforts in product innovation and opened a shoe box-shaped pop-up store into Sanlitun Taikoo Li, becoming the first time-honored pop-up store in Beijing to test the water. In Sanlitun, where hipsters gather, the event broke the stereotype of the old brand. "In just 10 days, the number of daily receptions is 20,000, and 70 people enter the store in one minute at the peak." The lively scene proves that the old-fashioned play can also be recognized by young people. Cheng Xu said.
This event is a collaboration between inline and universities. Since the end of 2017, the research team of Professor Zhang Jingyun of Beijing Technology and Business University has conducted research on the dilemmas faced in the transformation of time-honored fashion and tailored a planning plan. Since the flash mob, inline rise has opened the reverse growth path from "towards boots" to "tide shoes".
"In recent years, more and more domestic brands have innovated through cross-border IP cooperation with young consumer groups, docking classic traditional cultural elements, integrating film and television and animation plots or cooperating with cultural and creative brands is a common method, which can not only enhance the activity of brands, but also leverage each other's momentum to promote traffic conversion." Whether it is an old brand or a new brand, it is necessary to closely focus on the needs of consumers, implement the professionalism and craftsman spirit into the work, and make efforts in doing fine work in order to make the brand strong and long-lasting. Zhang Jingyun said.
In July 2016, the first batch of 300 pairs of co-branded women's shoes cooperated by Neiliansheng and the national comic "Big Fish begonia" was sold out in less than 18 hours. For a long time after that, this women's shoes were the hits of the inline promotion e-commerce platform. Hit dramas, popular variety shows, tattoo artists, forbidden city, Disney... The cross-border road of inline upgrading is getting wider and wider.
"Choosing different IPs is to improve the matching degree of young consumers with inline liters." Cheng Xu said that the joint model cooperated with "Ruyi Chuan" attracted drama fans and women who liked Chinese style, the cooperation with the Forbidden City was aimed at college students and young people in literature and art, and the cooperation with well-known tattoo artists attracted a younger and more fashionable audience. In the past three years, the annual sales of Inline Sheng have exceeded 100 million yuan.
On May 20th, Cheng Xu and his trend sub-line "Great Inner Liansheng" participated in the London Fashion Week 2021 Fashion Scout China Tour, showing the efforts made by China's time-honored brands for rejuvenation and international transformation.
All-round wayfinding
"I am a 'post-70s', we grew up in a period of relatively scarce materials, some peers will think that some foreign brands are synonymous with quality." But now the young people are different, and their recognition of Chinese manufacturing and domestic products is getting higher and higher. Sun Yueting, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing Time-honored Brands Association, said that the national tide has brought great opportunities to the old brands.
She suggested to the head of the long-established brand in Beijing: first do not blindly learn from others, but take a look at the historical archives of their own brand for hundreds of years, and the old brand has great value, not only at the commercial level, but also in the inheritance of history and culture.
Exploring the way in the balance between change and change, and innovating in protective development are the subjects of every old brand. An inheritor of Beijing's Daoxiang Village gave Sun Yueting an example: How to reduce oil and sugar when old Beijingers love to eat self-red and white mooncakes? The oil skin is easy to dry, and the sugar is easy to spoil.
"Why don't you insist on not letting the skin dry?" Because there are green and red silk preserved fruits cut into thin filaments dotted inside, although not expensive, but this is a tradition, the teacher hopes that when customers eat his pastries, the green and red silk inside is still fresh, and after thousands of experiments, the oil is lowered. Sun Yueting said with emotion that this is innovation in inheritance.
For inline, quality is still the first criterion. "A pair of handmade thousand-layer bottom cloth shoes, the total process to hundreds of ways, the fastest need 3 days to do well." The production of the sole requires more than 30 processes, the sole is no more than 81 stitches per square inch, and the whole pair of shoes is at least 2100 stitches. Cheng Xu said that in recent years, the non-genetic heirs of Neiliansheng are using new materials and new technologies for product innovation, "In our joint series with the variety show "National Treasures", there is a shoe that Yue Wang Gou Jian applies to the process of new materials. ”
There is both innovation on the product side and efforts on the communication track. Last year, the offline store was seriously affected by the epidemic, and Cheng Xu and the employees groped for a live broadcast and quickly tasted the sweetness. "On April 15 this year, our Dongsi store Douyin live broadcast a single sales of 23,000 yuan, which is almost the sum of the average daily sales of the physical store in 4 days." Yu Ping, manager of Beijing Neilian Shengdongsi Store, said excitedly, "Now the average daily live broadcast is 6 to 7 hours, whether it is online sales or offline drainage, the effect is very good, during the live broadcast, we continue to explain the craft and maintenance knowledge of handmade cloth shoes, but also let many young people 'turn to powder'." ”
"At present, e-commerce channels account for two-thirds of the total sales of Inline Sheng, of which Tmall sales account for 50% of total sales." Cheng Xu said that as a business entity, it is necessary to change its sales strategy in keeping up with the pace of customers.
The old brand is constantly unlocking new ways to play "National Tide". Wang Zhihe launched the cartoon character image "Wang Xiaohe"; Quanjude launched the "MengBao Duck" image, and opened the "Pin Taste" light and shadow theme restaurant in the front store to build an immersive experience atmosphere through intelligent technology; Neilian sheng and Beijing Tongrentang respectively launched the "small font" sub-lines "big inline sheng" and "Zhima health". In early May, 10 long-established brands such as Beijing Daoxiang Village, Cheap Fang, Caibai, Enamel Factory, Baihua Bee Industry, YideGe and Arctic Ocean made a wonderful appearance at the first CICGF in Haikou, Hainan With many high-quality products.
"Planting grass" Chinese goods
Recently, the "Baidu 2021 National Tide Pride Search Big Data" report shows that the attention of the national tide has increased by 528% in the past 10 years, and the attention of domestic brands in 2021 will reach 3 times that of foreign brands.
"Under the two major trends of consumption upgrading and industrial upgrading, many new domestic brands have risen." Shenyang, professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University, said, "In the future, Guochao is not just a certain IP or a certain culture, but a Chinese aesthetic and life concept, along with the rise of China, Guochao will also go abroad and go to the world." ”
Taking advantage of the situation has become a compulsory course for long-established brands.
"The long-established brand should open its mind, conform to the development of the times, and innovate marketing methods in the all-media era, and need to make more efforts in sales, publicity, cross-border cooperation, diversification, and IP." Sun Yueting said.
On April 28, the "National Chao Jingpin Festival" hosted by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce and hosted by the Beijing Time-honored Brands Association was launched, and the event will continue until October. Experience brewing six Biju la eight garlic, making three yuan milk tea, learning "National Chao Jing Pin Festival peace of mind domestic products and intellectual property rights", online cloud exhibition, cloud exploration shop... As the highlight of this, the "Qianmen Guochao Jingpin Festival" carried out during the "May Day" holiday held activities such as the national tide time-honored market and the intangible cultural exhibition, as well as 5 Jingyun Guanghe special performances, during which the short video of Qianmen Street was played more than 2.8 million times on the Douyin platform.
These efforts are to let consumers further understand the cultural style of national fashion design and fashion brands when purchasing fashion goods, in short: planting grass.
During the "National Chao Jingpin Festival" activity, the supermarket issued 20 stores in Beijing to hold the "Zhengqing National Goods Strong", promoting more than 10 new and old domestic products, covering wine, beauty, washing and other categories of goods, with cumulative sales of more than 240,000 yuan, an increase of 58% year-on-year sales and 185% increase in month-on-month sales.
"The time-honored brand is not only the source and symbol of the national brand, but also the cultural business card of a city, which has become an integral part of the regional brand and the city brand, borrowing from each other and promoting each other." Zhang Jingyun said. (Economic Daily-China Economic Network reporter Li Jing)