Overseas niche design brands are ushering in the spring in the Chinese market, and they have either won the favor of Chinese capital, or have opened independent offline stores, or are active on local social media platforms.
Among these brands, by FAR, a new luxury accessories brand from Bulgaria, is a representative case that has attracted much attention, and it is also one of the early overseas niche design brands that have entered the Chinese market and have developed rapidly. During this year's Tanabata, BY FAR China's first offline limited-time experience store was unveiled at Shanghai's trendy landmark TX Huaihai; The world's second store, Asia's first store, will open in Shanghai Zhangyuan in the Nanjing West Road business district in a few months.
On this occasion, Magnificent Hashy exclusive interview with brand co-founder and CEO Sabina Gyosheva; Chief Marketing Officer Valentina Ignatova and General Manager Guan Junqing of Greater China.
BY FAR's first offline limited-time experience store
As a representative of an international niche design brand growing up in a new generation of digital communication environment, BY FAR's unique growth path provides us with a lot of fresh inspiration and inspiration:
- Firm "niche" can harvest blockbusters
- Can successful overseas marketing experience evoke localization resonance?
- A new generation of brands with a global vision are actively laying out the Chinese market
Firm "niche" can harvest blockbusters
"As the brand's iconic category, underarm bags are the first impression of BY FAR by Chinese consumers and have gained continued love." Guan Junqing told Hualizhi. So, how did BY FAR establish the identity of one of the pioneers of the "armpit bag" sub-classification with the blockbuster Rachel?
Long before luxury brands rushed to launch/replicate the "armpit bag", By FAR's first bag in 2017 Rachel has keenly captured this trend.
"We often take inspiration from movies and TV shows from the '90s and early 2000s. You'll find our team working on watching Friends and Sex and the City. There are many retro things in our collection, and when we create, we filter through our own perspective and then re-express them into our current products. Arguably, we are trying to portray our own specific emotions. Valentina once introduced in an interview with foreign media.
Inspired by the simple and fashionable retro style of the post-90s generation in the classic American dramas "Friends" and "Sex and the City", BY FAR has found the starting point of storytelling from the common warm memories of a generation. For example, Rachel pays homage to the heroine of "Friends", Rachel Green.
"As a brand founder, you should always remember that you are creating something for yourself, and only when you love it yourself will you have the opportunity to make others fall in love with it too." This is the life creed we have gained from entrepreneurship. Sabina and Valentina say.
Today, Rachel is still the top seller of the brand's Tmall official flagship store, while BY FAR continues to copy the record of making blockbusters from the retro style, and has launched a number of blockbuster packages.
In fact, not only in the bag category, the shoes represented by low-top block-heeled boots Sofia and square-toe belt sandals Tanya are also the signatures of BY FAR's one-step niche design field, and their popularity is even earlier than bottega Veneta, which pushed "square-toe shoes" on the hot search in 2019.
Sabina told us that even under the influence of the epidemic in the past two years, the brand has not stopped innovating, expanding new categories such as belts and sustainable sneakers in products.
"Accessories will continue to be the cornerstone of our business as a new luxury brand, but our vision is to develop the company into a well-rounded lifestyle brand." Sabina said firmly to Ornate.
This once niche brand is unleashing its potential in China's emerging fashion consumer market, Guan Junqing said: "With the further understanding of the design concept and brand spirit of the brand's simple fashion, retro aesthetic and youthful expression, BY FAR has been regarded by more and more consumers as a brand that echoes the aesthetics and values of the contemporary Chinese consumers, and at the same time has more expectations for the brand in design, use scenarios, and categories, which is also the brand will continue to innovate. Actively lead Chinese consumers in the two concepts of new luxury and lifestyle of the times. ”
NEW IN THE BY FAR 2022 COLLECTION
Can successful overseas marketing experience evoke localization resonance?
One of the biggest characteristics of the new generation of consumers is the convergence of globalization, especially the similar preferences of young people, which also lays the foundation for niche brands to expand in globalization; Second, another big feature of the new generation of consumers is the high degree of digitalization, which is what a new generation of niche brands like BY FAR are good at.
Born in the era of content explosion and Internet brands, a brand needs to have the attributes of a "media company" before it grows up, BY FAR understands the truth and attaches great importance to content marketing.
"Born in Europe and quickly loved in the United States, we are constantly working to strengthen our connections with customers, partners and industry players around the world. In the beginning, BY FAR's digital genes were stronger than offline, and Instagram has always been one of the brand's important content marketing fronts. Valentina once admitted in an interview with foreign media.
Since its inception, BY FAR has gained many European and American top star fans on Instagram such as Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber, Kendal Jenner, etc., and through their influence, quickly circled a group of fashionistas with avant-garde sensitivities to niche design. As of press time, BY FAR had 539,000 followers on Instagram.
What kind of localization adjustment will be made in the process of "translating" these successful overseas practices to the Chinese market?
In fact, in the Chinese market, social media presents more and more subdivided and complex ecological characteristics, and diversified touchpoints such as WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin need to be covered. "The new hot brands of the times often have a high popularity and matching degree in a specific consumer group at the beginning, and in the stage of further expansion, it is quite important to expand the brand connotation and audience margin, how to expand the communication object to a wide enough and commercial enough field without diluting the unique tone of the brand, which is a challenge." Guan Junqing said.
"Never stop experimenting and keep creating new ways to interact with your community." As Valentina says. When we looked at the official social media data of the BY FAR brand, we saw that it had opened an official Weibo account as early as 2018. It is worth mentioning that the one-type mouth of Weibo is also specially set up on the brand's global official website. According to the monitoring data of "Magnificent Zhi", the number of Weibo fans of BY FAR is 64,000, and the number of notes mentioned by BY FAR in Xiaohongshu exceeds 30,000.
According to the "2021 China Luxury User White Paper" released by "Gorgeous Think Tank", young consumers pay more attention to the sense of ritual of life, and festivals are an important scene for them to buy luxury goods. According to the survey, Valentine's Day, Spring Festival, Christmas, Tanabata and Mother's Day are the five major holidays that consumers are most likely to spend on luxury goods.
During this year's Tanabata, BY FAR specially launched four Tanabata limited series handbags, under the names of "First Sight YOUNG LOVE", "Simu LONGING", "Love SOLID CRUSH" and "Love SWEET PASSION", which revolve around the traditional Chinese story of the romance of the cowherd weaver girl. In order to show the brand's tolerance in traditional classics and cutting-edge fashion, BY FAR also launched the brand's NFT digital work "Seven" to Be Loved in the world. Xi", which was released exclusively on R-SPACE, the digital art platform of Little Red Book, on July 27.
"Seven" to love · " Eve"
BY FAR Tanabata Limited Series Gloves
In order to cooperate with the promotion of the series, the brand's first offline limited-time experience store in China opened in Shanghai TX Huaihai at the same time, and experienced BY FAR's in-depth understanding of local culture through the "Love Challenge" interactive game.
When talking about the experience of the Chinese market in summarizing and developing overseas social media marketing, Guan Junqing shared:
"In the stage of further expanding the Chinese market, we will pay more attention to the hot spots and consumption nodes expressed by the fashion crowd in the local area, and confidently express by FAR in the resonance of By FAR with Chinese consumers and culture in key marketing activities, such as this Tanabata Valentine's Day limited series; At the same time, we will continue to explore the experimental exploration of brand experience and lifestyle of new luxury brands in the era, and various social media platforms will cooperate to explore digital experiences that combine virtual and real, online and offline two-way linkage, etc., to promote the reach and dissemination of brand content. ”
The new generation of brands with a global vision are actively laying out the Chinese market
"The pandemic has shown us that if we work hard, brands and teams can achieve good results no matter where they are in the world." Valentina once said in an interview with foreign media. Although only six years old, BY FAR has infused globalization into the DNA of the start-up brand from the very beginning, and the three founders have worked around the world, which is also an important quality and trait of the new generation of brand founders.
FOUNDED IN 2016 BY FAR BY TWIN SISTERS SABINA AND VALENTINA AND FRIEND DENITSA BUMBAROVA, THE BRAND NAME COMES FROM THE INITIALS (FAR) OF THEIR SON. Each of the three founders has strengths, with Sabina as CEO, Valentina as CMO, and Denitsa as Creative Director.
Valentina believes that this geographical internationality complements the company's business. "Our eyes need to travel," she said. We want to try to communicate with more international friends and build close ties around the world. The three of us communicate every day and it's easy for us to stay in touch. ”
From left to right: Denitsa Bumbarova, Sabina Gyosheva and Valentina Ignatova
BY FAR's Los Angeles flagship store
The brand's first pop-up store was opened in London, the first offline flagship store was opened in Los Angeles, BY FAR even received a strong response in the emerging Middle East Arab market, Miranda handbags sold well locally...
Looking at China from the world, BY FAR is one of the earliest niche design brands to enter the Chinese market and is also one of the most rapidly growing new generation niche design brands.
Although the epidemic that began in 2020 has slowed down the further expansion of overseas niche brands in the Chinese market, it has really tested the flexibility of brands in the Chinese market. At the same time, the Chinese market is exploding unprecedented demand for niche design styles, and a number of overseas brands represented by BY FAR have smelled such opportunities.
In November 2021, BY FAR officially opened the official Tmall flagship store. According to Guan Junqing, in the early stage of the epidemic, although sales in the Chinese market were affected to a certain extent, there was a good recovery from the second half of 2020, especially after the opening of the official flagship store of Tmall, the share and total volume of the entire Chinese market are constantly rising. Guan Junqing revealed to "Hualizhi" that next year the brand will consider landing on more strategic e-commerce platforms.
"Independent offline stores are a comprehensive holographic embodiment of a brand's design concept, brand connotation and values, and the best way for new brands to communicate with consumers in the initial efforts to transform the impression of a single product into a mature stage of brand impression is to communicate with consumers in the form of physical stores." Guan Junqing said.
Six years after its establishment, the BY FAR Asia flagship store will open a few months later in Shanghai Zhangyuan, a new landmark of world-class business culture with a century-old building. "This flagship store will connect the Shanghai atmosphere of the Nanjing West Road business district, combine the historical background of the original building, and show the brand spirit of the new luxury of the times with a double-storey space." Guan Junqing introduced.
"Enhancing the brand's offline experience is a core strategy for our future. Following the opening of the world's first store in Los Angeles, we are currently preparing for a second flagship store in Shanghai. We want to expand our visibility and reach in major cities where our audiences gather, and provide a space for like-minded communities to meet and share. Another strategic focus in the Chinese market is to strengthen BY FAR's positioning as a new luxury brand. To this end, our recently established team in Shanghai has given us great support. We have just launched our Chinese Valentine's Day capsule collection and our first NFT artwork, and plan to engage the local community in other important cultural events throughout the year. Sabina told Ornate.
Appendix: List of overseas niche designer brands
epilogue
From the success of one celebrity item to the creation of multiple blockbuster records, while relying on flexible digital communication and content marketing, BY FAR has not only quickly entered the vision of young consumers, but also paved the way for its early commercial success. But how to achieve sustainable development of the business from creating blockbusters to continuing the classic is a challenge that every niche brand must face.
In particular, BY FAR is facing a more competitive Chinese market than it did a few years ago. Not only in the vertical field more overseas accessories brands rushing in, looking at the entire niche design field, a number of brands have officially entered China this year, including Australian designer brand ZIMMERMANN, Japanese fashion brand AMBUSH, French designer brand AMIRI has opened China's first store; The fence between The Korean designer we11done and the Danish designer brand Ganni's first store in China has also appeared in Shenzhen Vientiane Tiandi.
In this boom of overseas niche brands entering China, how to strengthen brand building, create and maintain long-term brand equity from multiple dimensions such as products, marketing and operations? How can you connect with Chinese consumers in a more deeply engaged dialogue and make an impact in a wider audience? These are not only BY FAR, but also the "mountains" that a new generation of niche design brands must cross to create lasting vitality.