Ten years of Internet people resigned overnight to make bags, in the brand war, how do the two designers find a balance between "fast and slow"? In the 19th issue of Hualizhi, "Dialogue with Chinese Brand Managers", Fu Song, founder of Songmont, a Chinese designer bag brand, and Wang Jie, co-founder, shared their cooperation stories.
Fu Song graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University and served as the design director of Google China for ten years, responsible for the design of Google Gboard, Google's input method product.
Wang Jie holds a Ph.D. from the School of Design of cacobo academy of fine arts and has been a teacher at the school of design of CAFA since 2007. He was the artistic director of the Olympic Art Research Center of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and was responsible for the design of sports icons for the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games and the sports icon design for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Founded SMORE Design Research in 2011.
Because she could not buy a bag that could fit into a computer and look good, in 2013, Fu Song and her mother made a simple and practical computer bag, which was loved by friends and colleagues, so Fu Song came up with the idea of starting a brand, and Songmont came into being.
In the early days of her business, Fu Song was in charge of product design work in Beijing, and her mother brought a group of grandmothers in their 60s with manual experience to make bags. As brand products are loved by more and more people, Songmont has a professional factory, more young people join the team, and the "Grandma Team" has also been sticking to the front line and is responsible for after-sales maintenance.
Songmont's Slogan is "There is pine under the mountain, and there is temperature in the bag". "There is a pine under the mountain" means that nature is free, the Tao is natural, and it is the embodiment of oriental aesthetics; "Temperature in the bag" conveys that Songmont's bag is not only a wearing product, but also a companion, encouraging women's diversified life choices, and not afraid of time.
At present, songmont Tmall flagship store has 500,000+ fans, and the 2021 Tmall double 11 activity luggage leather goods category ranks among the top 10. In April 2021, the brand opened its first physical store in INDIGO Beijing, and in November 2021, it opened a flagship store on Huaihai Middle Road in Shanghai.
The following is a selection of transcripts of this conversation
Internet thinking to do Chinese bags
Gorgeous Chronicles: Can you briefly introduce yourself and the Songsongmont brand?
Fu Songmont: The name Songmont comes from an error-prone Chinese character for "Song", which is also my own name. In the process of dissemination, we found that everyone always wrote the cursive word "Song", so Teacher Wang helped us to make a spelling of "Songmont", "Song" stands for "Song", "mont" is "mountain" also means "mountain". The current main client base is confident independent women who have their own thinking and are able to identify the lifestyles they approve of.
We have a sense of mission and hope to one day become a Chinese luggage brand that is well known to the world.
Gorgeous Chronicles: What is the relationship between the current production and the original team?
Fu Song: Now we have our own professional industrial chain, and some international production lines. However, the grandmother team is still in Shanxi to help us do some repairs, and some small parts work, which can be said to be our spiritual pillar.
In fact, the most important thing that user experience design has in common with branding is that the object is the user himself. Our relationship with the user is that we are apprentices and the users are teachers. In this regard, doing luggage and doing user experience design are the same.
"Gorgeous Zhi": In the process of branding, is there any moment that breaks some of your previous habitual thinking and makes you feel different?
Fu Song: The difference is in some practical methods. What used to be the design of software is now faced with tactile materials and usable products. The material and pen you use have changed, but the core is the same, it is all about finding problems and solving problems.
"Magnificent": In the design and development process of the bag itself, what are the characteristics of your brand, and what are the particularly interesting details?
Fu Song: We use a very internalized Internet process to make products, find problems, analyze problems, and solve problems. After we make the product, there is a private beta link, to some more discerning internal users, let them continue to use, do brute force testing, take it to the real environment to find problems. Iterate and optimize the product in a flowing way.
Design inspiration and craftsmanship
"Hualizhi": From the aspect of product design, how do you achieve both innovation and in line with the public or your own brand consumers, can you share your inspiration and design ideas?
Fu Song: First of all, our positioning is for the public users, the pursuit of service diversification, perhaps not the model body or fashion icon of the kind of people, but everyone can go to the wild beauty to become confident, to highlight their taste. The target audience has decided that our products should be versatile and adaptable.
In addition, we also hope to be able to put our generation's understanding of Chinese aesthetics into daily products. For example, we had a wonton bun, and we went to study the folds of various dumplings in China and then made it, and there was a feeling of a woman's bag.
"Gorgeous Zhi": In the field of design aesthetics, what other interesting details can Teacher Wang Jie add?
Wang Jie: When explaining this aesthetic tone of product form and brand, we try to use some niche means to find those raw materials that are not superficial, such as the early use of brocade materials. In terms of responding to culture, we want to explore some more abstract methods ourselves, because I think that if you emphasize that it is a Chinese brand in particular, it is not objective, because you don't know if users want your product to be in this state.
Using design as much as possible in the effective part may be an important criterion for us to establish aesthetics or establish product form.
"Magnificent Zhi": In your opinion, what are the characteristics of China's current bag brands, including Songmont, in terms of craftsmanship and quality?
Wang Jie: Although we are designers, we are not from product design, so when we make products, we use the best technology. For example, in a small series of "things outside the body", I spent a year and a half testing a fixation problem, which is too long for the normal development cycle, but now we will try to control it for about three months.
This has formed a gene: we have spent the greatest effort and effort in the process and selection of materials, as far as possible to achieve the highest quality, but at the same time did not set a particularly high price, so the multiplier is relatively low, which leads to us may not be able to quickly enter the boutique, but we use another way to respond to today's fashion industry.
"Gorgeous Zhi": I saw Songmont's product design, the logo is not particularly obvious, have you ever made a special plan or idea in this regard?
Wang Jie: We have no special consideration in this regard, and we have been relatively stable after changing to english standards. We don't want a clear brand symbol feature, so that the product can be seen at once songmont, which is a common appeal from the early days. Most of the products are small logos, which will also promote our sense of symbolism in the form design.
Above: Songmont Wonton Pack
How do two designers work together to make a brand?
"Gorgeous Zhi": In your opinion, what is the significance of products such as bags for the daily use of consumers, or from the design point of view? And what are your expectations for the brand in bags or more categories in the future?
Wang Jie: First of all, in terms of design power, product power, and brand power, we are the best, because our identity as a designer is more difficult to do a good job of a brand, which is supported by data, and there will be some friends to talk about this matter.
The designer's appeal is to think about how to achieve the ultimate in a project cycle, but the brand has a beginning and an end, so in a long-term creation, it is always full of strength, and the best design, balance the efficiency and aesthetic extreme products are continuously provided to users, which is a long-term climbing process.
Nowadays, more and more designers are starting to do brands, they are facing the new group of consumers after 00, my personal feeling is that this generation actually does not mind the endorsement of the brand before, they care about today's new brand, how to provide a differentiated experience; they want to hear a new and different perspective to match today's lifestyle.
"Magnificent": What problems did you encounter in the process of brand building, and what key decisions did you make to promote the rapid development of the brand?
Fu Song: We first did the d to c model. This approach is based on two points, one is that users are very wise and know what products they want; the other is that more and more people with Internet thinking are starting to make brands.
Wang Jie: I have been running into Fu Song for a long time, she is the first efficiency, and I pursue the ultimate, often ignoring time. But we all recognize each other's worth and are a great addition. Since the beginning of the previous year, we have focused on brand building, including opening two offline stores this year, so that our products and users can meet in the real world, feel its leather and line. We define these two offline stores as new consumer retail spaces. We don't want to make it into a shelf, but into a "pine under the mountain", a human and natural installation, an experience space.
Above: Songmont Beijing Studio
The harvest of offline store opening and the next stage of outlook
"Gorgeous Zhi": When you go offline, after a period of time to open a store, accumulate some user feedback, what do you gain now?
Wang Jie: Obviously, we are not very skilled and professional, but because of this, we can create some differentiated value. There are many things to learn in this process, including personnel management after opening the store, the professionalism of the store staff, and the ability to maintain consistent communication with the online. But we are working gradually, expecting to provide some different results.
Fu Song: Here I would like to mention the concept of career traps and industry traps, when we are already familiar with doing a thing, it is very likely to be limited, and it is very difficult to break through this cognitive barrier. I didn't expect to open an offline store at first, but then I adjusted my mentality and started from scratch. To sum up, one is to look at new things with a sense of awe, and the other is not to rush to define, but to think about what people want.
Gorgeous: As a cutting-edge brand, where do you want to advance in the next stage?
Fu Song: I hope to balance family and work, after all, branding is a protracted battle.
Wang Jie: In fact, the characteristics of this era are no experts, every industry is reshaping, everyone must be prepared for a long-term climb, my grasp of life may be better than Fu Song, because she is efficiency first, and I will spend more time to balance the relationship between design life and aesthetic products, and also pull her back from time to time.
Above: Songmont Shanghai Middle Huaihai Road store