Recently, #Simba sells fake yoga pants with one night sales of more than 6 million #, #YPL responds to Simba's anchor selling fakes#, #YPL responds to Simba selling fake 6 million *** overnight, #Simba says that the yoga pants sold are not fake # A number of topics have appeared on the hot search, once again pushing the Internet celebrity anchor Simba and his team to the cusp of public opinion.
However, in the controversy, Simba and the "brand side" have been holding their own opinions for several rounds, drying materials, making the truth of the matter more and more confusing, falling into Rashomon, who is the "genuine", is it all "genuine"?
Judging from the latest response, the problem may lie in trademark licensing.
"OEM" is not a new thing at present, and there are many brands that rely on "trademark authorization" to do almost "no cost" business. However, with the emergence of the new retail model and the decline in brand reputation caused by "OEM", the business of "trademark licensing" seems to have entered the Red Sea stage.
Overnight sales of more than 6 million but "fake"?
On April 18, Simba and his anchor "Egg Egg" appeared in the network live broadcast room to bring a product called "YPL Sunscreen Cool Pants". Some consumers found that the YPL brand official did not have this product after placing an order, and questioned Simba's sale of fake goods.
On the 22nd, Australia's YPL said through its official blue V Weibo number "YPL Sports Fashion Products" statement that the products sold by Simba do not belong to the category of YPL sales, and the relevant distribution companies and production companies are not YPL's formal distribution and production channels, and there is no qualification for YPL brand marketing, authorized use, product production and sales.
According to relevant data, the price of the product live broadcast room is 63 yuan, the number of sold pieces is more than 100,000 pieces, and the sales amount is more than 6 million yuan.
"YPL Sports Tide Products" said that considering the huge number and amount of sales of the product, YPL will pursue the responsibility of the product distribution company and the production company in accordance with the law, and safeguard its legitimate rights and interests through legal means. At the same time, for online sales, YPL has the right to simultaneously pursue responsibility for relevant product links, stores, anchors, etc.
In this regard, Xin Xuan said that the original holder of the YPL trademark is Australia Health Industry Co., Ltd., and Harbin Aoshengyuan Trading Co., Ltd. was authorized by Australia Health Industry Co., Ltd. on January 1, 2021, and the authorization period is from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2026, and the authorization is transferable.
In April this year, after the original trademark holder Australia Health Industry Limited applied for the transfer of the trademark to Australia YPL Limited, there was a dispute between the two parties over authorizing a third party to use the trademark before and after the transfer, so the trademark transferee said that the products promoted in the live broadcast room were "not products of the YPL brand".
Trademark doubts: "YPL Sports Fashion Products" and Ao Shengyuan, who owns the genuine version?
Although Ausson Claims to hold the "YPL" trademark for 25 categories of clothing, shoes and hats in the International Classification, the trademark is not consistent with the Australian YPL trademark.
According to the enterprise information inquiry platform, Aoshengyuan has applied for three "YPL" trademarks in 25 categories of clothing, shoes and hats, and the two variant trademarks are currently invalid and applied for, and the only "YPL" that shows "registered" is also inconsistent with the trademark design held by the Australian YPL. The only trademark identical to the Australian YPL is a fabric sheet belonging to Class 24 and is invalid.
According to tianyan, the legal representative of Harbin Aoshengyuan Trade Co., Ltd. is Sheng Aiqin. In 2021, Guangzhou Aomai Information Technology Co., Ltd., which is invested by the company, was included in the list of abnormal business operations because its registered domicile or business premises could not be contacted.
In addition, the "YPL Sports Flagship Store" on the Douyin platform, which previously spoke out in support of Xinxuan, has now deleted the relevant statement. The account registration company is Shenzhen Sardora Trading Co., Ltd., which does not have a "YPL" related trademark registration, and it was listed as "abnormal operation" on March 7 this year because it "cannot be contacted through the registered domicile or business premises".
In this incident, The Australian Health Industry Co., Ltd., which appeared in the materials of both sides, could not access the relevant information on many domestic enterprise information inquiry platforms.
Just when it was confusing, the "YPL Sports Trend" Weibo account issued the latest statement on the evening of the 23rd, saying that the trademark licensing dispute involved in the matter has been properly resolved. We apologize for the impact this has had on the relevant companies, the majority of netizens and Xin Youzhi.
Brand licensing is popular in industries such as clothing and cosmetics
Judging from the latest responses of both sides, the Simba "sale of counterfeits" storm may be due to brand licensing.
"OEM" is not a new thing at present, and there are many brands that rely on "trademark authorization" to do almost "no cost" business.
Previously, abg, the parent company of well-known clothing brands such as Nautica, Forever21, and BrooksBrothers, once planned to be listed on the NASDAQ.
Notably, ABG neither produces nor sells apparel, but acquires, transforms and operates the brand, translating the brand's IP into visible revenue through more than 800 partners. According to the financial data disclosed by ABG, the revenue for the full year of 2020 reached $489 million, an average annual growth rate of 7.6%, and it managed more than 32 brands.
In the international market, there are only a few benchmarking companies and listed companies in the subdivision of brand management, including IconixBrandGroup, WHPGlobal, SequentialBrandsGroup, etc., and the existing market capitalization is not low.
It is worth mentioning that many brands managed by ABG are through the acquisition of previously poorly managed companies and remodeling and managing them, which undoubtedly provides another way of thinking for many domestic clothing brands that are not in a slump.
Among the domestic A-shares, the only one that can benchmark with the ABG business model is Antarctic E-commerce, which is valued at about 30 billion yuan.
According to publicly available information, Antarctica is a lingerie business founded in the last century. However, since 2008, Antarctica people have begun the transformation of enterprises, no factories and distributors, only to do "trademark licensing" business. On December 28, 2010, Antarctica launched the "NGTT" community business model, committed to establishing an e-commerce ecological integrated service system. In 2015, Jiangsu Xinmin Technology was listed on the backdoor, and the stock market was referred to as "Antarctic E-commerce".
Antarctica has achieved the ultimate in this "trademark licensing" business with a gross profit of more than 90%, and in 2020 alone, the total revenue of the brand licensing and integrated service business of Antarctic E-commerce was 1.327 billion yuan, accounting for about 1/3 of the company's total revenue that year.
Searching on the e-commerce platform can be found that not only warm underwear, but also on the Internet can also search for Antarctic curtains, down jackets, bedding, and even breast pumps, mini washing machines, electric massage chairs and tables, etc., it seems that "everything can be Antarctica".
Many old domestic brands in the textile industry have long embarked on this road. Some merchants said that they only need to pay a few tens of thousands of yuan of brand usage fees every year, and then pay for the use of hangtags according to the number of sales, and the rest of the licensors basically no longer care. In some industry segments, the use fee of the brand can even be as low as less than 10,000 yuan.
On some brand licensing websites, some famous brands that were once familiar to the older generation are also listed, such as Pierre Cardin, PLAYBOY, Cardill Crocodile and so on. The types of goods involved in "OEM" are mainly clothing, but also involve shoes accessories and bags, daily necessities, maternal and infant children's clothing and home textile products.
At present, this "OEM style" is also popular in the cosmetics, health care products, food, and small household appliances industries. Among them, Renhe's cosmetics and health care products, modified cosmetics, and some small household appliances in Jiuyang and Philips have also adopted this model.
Under the new retail model, "OEM" business is difficult to do
Is white labeling a good business? Judging from the history of Antarctic e-commerce along the way, this was indeed a good business of "no cost and no profit". In 2015, antarctic e-commerce achieved operating income of 389 million yuan and net profit of 172 million yuan. By 2020, the company will achieve operating income of 4.172 billion yuan and net profit of 1.188 billion yuan. Five-year operating income increased by nearly 9.5 times, and net profit increased by nearly 6 times.
According to the 2020 financial report of Antarctic E-commerce, the gross profit margin of its brand integrated service business reached 93.26%, and the gross profit margin of the dealer brand authorization business was 94.37%, while the gross profit margin of "goods sales" in the same period was only 1.17%. The profitability of the "OEM" business is evident.
However, with the changes in the market, the "OEM" track has become a red sea. Most of these OEM products are only sold on e-commerce platforms. The same brand "OEM" stores with the same purpose on the same e-commerce platform have been saturated, and some platforms can no longer even review and approve the opening of a new "OEM" brand store under a certain category.
In recent years, some brand authorized enterprises have neglected to strictly control "OEM" enterprises, and quality problems have occurred frequently. Among them, in the past few years, the Antarctic brand has repeatedly been blacklisted by the regulatory authorities or consumer associations due to quality or sampling problems, so that the reputation of the brand has been greatly affected. In the minds of consumers, the favorability of such "OEM" brands will also be greatly reduced.
In addition to the risks of quality and brand reputation, analysts said that changes in the market environment have also made it more and more difficult for the "OEM" business to do. Under the new retail model, the voice of supply chain enterprises has increased, coupled with the change of consumer shopping mode, for production-oriented enterprises, using brands to support sales is no longer the only choice. More companies are choosing new marketing models to "make their own money", of which the S2B2C model is the most prominent. This model is that large suppliers organize the source of goods, channel providers become bridges, connect large suppliers, and receive customers down, completing the cycle of commodity circulation and user demand feedback. In this model, merchants can even complete customized services and goods to consumers.
It is no wonder that the days of the "trademark licensing" kings of the past were not very good. According to the 2021 interim report of Antarctic E-commerce, the company's main revenue in the first half of this year was 1.661 billion yuan, up 2.15% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to the mother was 246 million yuan, down 42.85% year-on-year. Prior to this, in the fourth quarter of 2020, its net profit had already seen a significant decline, from 582 million yuan in the same period of 2019 to 443 million yuan.
Upstream news is synthesized from China News Network, Securities Daily, Beijing Youth Daily, and Sina Finance