"National Tide" has become a weapon for local clothing brands to counterattack international brands.
On March 23, ANTA Group announced its 2021 annual results, with revenue of RMB49.33 billion, an increase of 39% year-on-year, net profit of RMB7.72 billion, an increase of 50% year-on-year, and revenue of the two main brands, ANTA and FILA, both exceeding RMB20 billion.
Anta's main rival Li Ning released a financial report on Friday, with revenue of 22.57 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 56% year-on-year; net profit of 4.01 billion yuan, an increase of 136% year-on-year.
Semir's results released in early March were also very impressive. In 2021, Semir's revenue was 15.42 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to the mother reached 1.49 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth rate of 84.4%.
In contrast, international big names have encountered Waterloo in China.
On March 22, Nike released its first quarter results for 2022, and Revenue in Greater China fell 5% year-on-year. Earlier, Adidas' 2021 financial report showed that sales in Greater China increased by only 3% for the whole year, of which the second, third and fourth quarters fell by 16%, 15% and 24% respectively year-on-year.
The Xinjiang cotton incident at the beginning of last year was a direct inducement for Nike, Adi and other brands to turn from prosperity to decline in the Chinese market. But more importantly, the national tide has gradually become a consumer mentality that has deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, benefiting local brands a lot.
In the past year, the new crown epidemic has led to a decrease in the flow of customers entering the store in the business district, which continues to plague offline formats, and clothing companies such as Anta have been greatly affected. In this context, it is not easy for major brands to achieve good performance.
A number of investment institutions believe that the national tide is an important driving force for the strong performance of local apparel.
Everbright Securities previously pointed out in the research report that the rise of the national tide trend and changes in consumer preferences are favorable conditions for Li Ning's performance in 2021 to exceed expectations. Huajin Securities also said in the research report that it is optimistic about the development potential of Semir in the context of the deepening of the national tide.
Last year, local brands have taken the national tide element as the anchor of brand marketing and product design. Taking Semir as an example, it has put the entry point on traditional Chinese culture and the way of life of young people.
In 2021, Semir linked up with the Suzhou Museum and released new national tide products inspired by the famous Painting "December Order" of the Qing Dynasty. Prior to this, the brand has launched series such as "Plum Blossom", "Classic of Mountains and Seas", "Mulan", "Cuisine" and so on, and the linkage IP includes the Forbidden City Cultural Creation, Dunhuang Museum, and the Haunting Heavenly Palace.
Rooted in the new national tide of local cultural identity, coupled with the boost of e-commerce channels, local brands will rise against the market in 2021.
According to the "2022 Duoduo New National Tide Consumption Report" released by Pinduoduo in March this year, the number of domestic brands with sales of more than 100 million yuan on the platform in 2021 has reached 327, including more than 50 long-established brands and more than 30 new national tides.
The rise of the national tide has given local brands the opportunity to catch up with and surpass international brands. The mining and application of more Chinese elements and classic IP has enabled Guochao to gain continuous vitality and grow rapidly under the joint promotion of brands and channels.
A
In recent years, Chinese consumers' cultural self-confidence has been greatly enhanced. This emerging trend of thought is projected into the field of consumption, reflected in the contempt for fake foreign brands and the favor of the national tide. Many brands have actively embraced this trend.
Li Ning released "China Li Ning" at the 2018 New York Fashion Week, pioneering the national tide atmosphere, and other brands quickly followed up, appearing in major fashion shows and taking the national tide as one of the key product directions.
Some brands have formed their own national tide methodology. Lina Tan, director of New Retail at Semir, said that Semir generally starts from four dimensions when planning national tide products.
"One is traditional Chinese culture, such as brush calligraphy, the Baoyun Building of the Forbidden City, etc.; the second is to cooperate with the designers of the national tide to launch a joint model; the third is related to China's iconic events, such as rocket launches; the fourth is related to the sponsorship of national events, such as Semir costumes also appeared in the opening ceremony performance of the Beijing Winter Olympics." She said.
Lina Tan said that Semir divides the national tide product line into very fine pieces to meet the consumer demand of the national tide in different circles. "Any small type of national tide has the opportunity to be infinitely large, but it is only a matter of how many resources and experiences to invest."
For the national tide product line, Semir has a department dedicated to IP co-branding, starting from a large number of data insights, analyzing the concerns or preferences of target consumers, and screening out IP suitable for cooperation from Chinese cultural elements.
For example, Semir adult wear launched plum blossoms, shanhai jing, mulan, food series, etc.; its children's clothing brand Barabala brand, in addition to linking with Dunhuang Museum and Suzhou Museum, also cooperated with the classic national tide IP Qi Tian Dasheng and Huluwa, which are loved by children; fast fashion children's clothing brand Macalle launched national tide products inspired by the famous Painting "December Order" of the Qing Dynasty.
Semir previously said on the investor interactive platform that the company's brand fully revolves around rejuvenation, focuses on the new inspiration of the national tide, and designs and implements the "national tide" style and joint cross-border IP win-win through insight into the consumption habits of the target population. In the future, the company will continue to pay attention to the classic national tide IP, strengthen the accumulation and integration of various resources, strengthen the story and uniqueness, create product memory, establish a good interactive relationship with the new generation of consumers, and provide customers with a high-quality consumer experience.
E-commerce platforms also do not want to miss the opportunity of the national tide. From 2019 onwards, major e-commerce companies have introduced national tide support plans, such as Pinduoduo's long-established new e-commerce plans, trying to help the national tide category through means such as traffic and marketing resource tilt.
At the beginning of January this year, Pinduoduo launched the "2022 Duoduo New National Tide" action, announcing that it will invest tens of billions of support resources in one year to help more than 1,000 national tide brands, cutting-edge brands and long-established brands, with the goal of cultivating 10 tens of billions and 100 billion new national tide brands.
In addition to the investment of local brands and e-commerce platforms, changes in the external environment have also provided opportunities for the rise of the national tide.
In March 2021, the Xinjiang cotton incident broke out, and international brands such as Nike and Adidas were involved in it, encountering resistance from domestic netizens and plummeting sales. In July, Hongxing Erke made low-key donations for disaster relief, causing widespread concern and "wild" consumption, and once again pulled a wave of favorability to local brands.
Under the joint action of internal and external factors, BRANDS SUCH ASTA, LI Ning, and Semir have gained a lot last year, and small and medium-sized players have also benefited from it, attracting more new brands to join the national tide. Pinduoduo data shows that in 2021, the domestic brands settled on the platform increased by 270% year-on-year.
Zhang Yi, CEO of Market Research Company Ai Media Consulting, believes that the domestic demand provided by China's 1.4 billion consumers can drive the national tide forward, and the basic market capacity of the national tide economy is more than 10 trillion yuan.
B
When the national tide first emerged in 2018, the understanding and presentation of this emerging fashion trend by enterprises was very simple, mainly highlighting the word "China", and the foothold was national and national identity. But today, this set of design ideas has become a little old, prompting companies to dig deeper into traditional Chinese culture.
Founded in 1997, Elai is one of the old manufacturers of domestic down jackets. In the past two decades, Ai Lai has gradually evolved from OEM to independent brands, becoming one of the head brands of domestic down jackets.
In January this year, Ai Laiyi showed the Dunhuang joint series down jacket in the Pinduoduo live broadcast room, integrating the design elements of the national tide such as nine-colored deer, singing sand pattern and moi pattern.
Leona, Vice President of Elei Group, said: "The design inspiration of the Dunhuang series mainly comes from the integration of Dunhuang culture and natural environment, such as the most popular singing sand pattern, that is, our designers integrate the scene of mingsha mountain light and shadow into the design when collecting wind in Dunhuang. ”
According to Riona, the series is a new national tide jointly launched by Elei and Dunhuang Museum this year, which is loved by young consumers and ranks first in the group's down jacket category in terms of sales.
According to statistics, as of 22:00 that night, a total of 2.55 million netizens entered the Ailai Pinduoduo live broadcast room, and the store's single-day sales increased by more than 270%.
Original design brand Mark Huafei was founded in 2001 and has now become a well-known diversified art trend brand in China. On February 22, Mark Huafei walked into the Pinduoduo live broadcast room to show the joint sweatshirt between Mark Huafei and "National Treasure".
Chen Yun, general manager of The E-commerce Department of Mark Huafei, said that the gold-winged bird pattern on the chest of this new national tide sweatshirt is derived from the classic IP of the national treasure, using embroidery technology, integrating traditional cultural relics elements and fashion academy style, presenting a new visual effect of traditional and trend integration.
In addition to the National Treasure Series, Mark Huafei also concentrated on the joint costumes with the main elements of the myth of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the Chinese Beast Yang Zun, and the "Timely Rain" Song Jiang as the main elements in the live broadcast, attracting a total of 1.41 million people to watch and like.
C
Four years after the birth of "China Li Ning", domestic consumers are paying more and more attention to the original design, workmanship quality and cost performance of the product itself. Printing "China" or adding some oriental designs to expect to sell at a high premium is no longer feasible. This also means that the commercial competition around the national tide is entering a new stage.
Some local brands have made changes, and the breakthrough is mainly focused on the two dimensions of cross-border IP and C2M manufacturing.
For example, Li Ning has cooperated with the Dunhuang Museum and others many times, declaring that it "reproduces the glory of national culture under the yellow sand"; Anta took the opportunity of the Beijing Winter Olympics to cooperate with the Forbidden City to launch "hegemonic" shoes; Hongxing Erke donated 1 million yuan to the Henan Museum after the rainstorm in Henan, and launched a joint T-shirt.
Lina Tan believes that in order to truly become a national tide, it should not be superficial, just telling consumers that Chinese culture is equal to the word "China". "It's more important to find out the extension behind these two words and dig out a new story, and the product is only the carrier of the story."
Semir has launched a blue and white porcelain-themed canvas shoe. Lina Tan believes that blue and white porcelain is a relatively simple pattern, but there is also a national tide behind it. When designing, it is necessary to consider why this color matching, the cultural meaning of blue and blue, how to use the product to undertake, and finally transform into a language that consumers can understand to communicate.
For another example, Semir has previously obtained the IP authorization of the Forbidden City Baoyun Building. "When launching the co-branded products, we did not simply use the image of Baoyun Lou, but found the essence elements inside, such as Xiangyun, Pan Buckle, etc., and integrated with the new products."
On the other hand, when expanding online channels, apparel brands hope to use the data capabilities of e-commerce platforms to more accurately grasp consumer preferences and launch new products that are more in line with the trend in the mode of C2M reverse customization.
Semir has been stationed in Pinduoduo since 2016. In addition to selling goods, When Semir does monthly and quarterly planning, it will obtain user portraits and consumer behavior insights from the platform to provide support for the development and marketing of new products.
"For example, at the end of last year we found that the search volume for Martin boots grew rapidly. As a clothing brand, we can't quickly meet this demand, but we can go and see what products can be paired with Martin boots. ”
On the other hand, Pinduoduo has set up a special team to help the Guochao brand formulate offline operation methods, such as the second-kill support plan and the tens of billions of subsidies to create stars. The platform plans to carry out a new model of full-link cooperation to promote the digital upgrading of brands at the production, technology, data and management levels.
Pinduoduo insiders said that the platform has formulated a national tide support plan for the next 4 years, planning a support resource package of tens of billions, cultivating 10 billion new national tide brands, 100 billion national tide brands, and at least 1,000 national tide brands, cutting-edge brands, and long-established brands to embrace new consumption.
On January 15 this year, Pinduoduo launched the "2022 Duoduo New National Tide" action, aiming to provide full-link digital services for the New National Tide brand from design and development, manufacturing to brand building, comprehensively promote the new National Tide directly connected to new consumption, and help China's real economy.
The person in charge of the "Duoduo New National Tide" project believes that in the past 30 years, the traditional manufacturing industry has completed the transformation from Chinese manufacturing to Chinese brands. For domestic brands, the current national hot flashes are undoubtedly a great opportunity to achieve overtaking in curves. The "2022 Duoduo New National Tide" action aims to further exert the advantages of the largest number of consumers and digital technology on the platform, continue to promote the direct connection of new national tide to new consumption, and help traditional brands achieve transformation and upgrading.
The e-commerce platform has increased the support of the national tide category, which has significantly stimulated brand sales.
In 2020, Ai Lai entered Pinduoduo. Since October last year, sales of the official flagship store of Elei Pinduoduo have increased by more than 260% for three consecutive months; of which the increase in November has exceeded 425%. "Dunhuang joint brand" has also become a hit in the down jacket category of the platform, especially favored by young female users.
Since entering Pinduoduo, Mark Huafei has also entered the fast lane of growth, and the monthly sales of the official flagship store have reached a maximum of more than 15 million yuan. Pinduoduo data shows that among the people who buy Mark Huafei, the post-95 generation accounts for more than 48%, and it is mainly concentrated in first- and second-tier cities.
Cultural IP with richer connotations, a more responsive C2M production model, coupled with the continuous investment of e-commerce platforms, are important supports for the national tide to continue to "tide".
This also shows that after the marketing magic of the word "China" gradually dissipates, the competition of the national tide is accelerating back to the essence. After local brands push Nike and Adi with the help of national sentiment, the next step of competition will focus on internal strength in design, production and channels.
Resources:
Tiger sniffing, "The post-00s are forcing the pseudo-national tide to a dead end"
Alphabet List, "How can the national tide live up to the young people?" 》
Mantis Observation, "Bosideng Can't Afford to Play High-End"
Wall Street News, "From Bosideng To Foreign Brands, Look at the Rise of Chinese Brands Trilogy"
Tencent Research Institute, "The National Tide Economy Is By No Means a Product of Short-lived"