Author | Zhong Yixuan
Edit | Dong Jie
It's an interesting scene.
On social media, a group of people judged with just a pair of brown leather buckled cowhide boots, "If the boots are authentic, this person should be a rich man."
The boots are Miu Miu's off-season model, priced at 21,300 yuan, but they have become the king of out-of-stock this summer. Early 20,000, among many luxury goods, is not a high-profile price. More importantly, Miu Miu, the positioning girly style, Prada's former side line, a brand that is not a top luxury, is suddenly tied to the "rich family", and there is even such a voice on the Internet - "Those who wear chanel are not necessarily rich people, but those who wear Miu Miu must be".
This is not out of nowhere. Miu Miu's performance in recent years has been truly impressive, and even single-handedly driving the performance of the entire Prada Group. In the first half of this year, Prada's sales increased by 20.5% to 2.232 billion euros, gross margin increased to 80.3%, and net profit rose by 62% to 305 million euros. Among them, the Chinese market promoted a significant rebound in sales in the Asia-Pacific region, with sales rising 25.3%, winning the first place in growth.
Prada Group Chairman Patrizio Bertelli attributed this to the outstanding performance of Prada and Miu Miu, especially Miu Miu, which achieved 57.3% revenue growth in the second quarter, successfully replacing Prada's main brand as the group's main growth engine.
But more interesting than the increase in sales, people's attitudes towards Miu Miu began to change. It is richer than old money, wear it, you are properly rich, no one cares if you are elegant and reserved, Miu Miu's expensive, expensive is expensive in the loose and casual spending of money.
The reason may lie in Miu Miu's stylistic positioning and its top "impracticality". Although the major luxury goods have always only talked about lifestyle and never taken practicality into real considerations, Miu Miu's impracticality is different from others - it does not have the social decency that Chanel only uses a logo to support, nor does it have classic models like other luxury goods, and Miu Miu is not worth investing in value retention.
On the contrary, it is very "brutal", highly saturated colors, large patches of sequin chips and diamonds, dedicated girly designs, and don't even care if you like it or not, often giving birth to some incomprehensible works. For example, 40,000 pairs of embroidered wool-encrusted diamond panties, even Korean actress Jang Yuanying wore the controversial sheepskin dress - not caring about the curve of the waist, the belly looks like a bulging leather ball.
First, there is no way to commute daily, second, you have to dress carefully, and third, there is no high luxury value, ordinary people are destined to stay away from Miu Miu. It represents a buy-and-sell consumption attitude, and combined with Miu Miu's young female positioning, a rich family who is free and free to consume luxury goods is born.
In fact, from the very beginning of its birth in 1992, Miu Miu had its own clear positioning. Its founder is Miuccia Prada, the third generation of Prada, whose name is derived from Miuccia's nickname Miu Miu, and the style is also cute like a little girl, and it is the only brand of Prada's young side line. If Prada is an elegant elite, Miu Miu is a bold rebellious girl. There is a theory that after Miuccia Prada took over as Prada, she "selfishly" left Miu Miu all the elf eccentricities of her girlhood.
After 2021, Miu Miu officially upgraded from a sub-brand to a mainstream luxury brand, and also once again determined a more recognizable brand positioning that is more suitable for social media, that is, a "rebellious" image different from the Italian style, and brought this rebellion to formal occasions, launching ironic ladylike office wear, ballet flats, luxury tights, etc.
This cultural relevance and clear positioning has also become the main driver of Miu Miu's growth. In a way, Miu Miu unexpectedly missed the mood of the times and the trend of luxury goods returning to millennials. Aside from the girl's positioning, by now, the narrative of class leap is no longer the mainstream, and people have begun to understand and pursue an innate, underpinned, effortless wealth - the popularity of the topics of "everyone wants to be Wang Shiling" and "the only daughter of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai" are the best examples.
Miu Miu is also not soft on marketing. Compared with the awkwardness and arrogance of high luxury in publicity, Miu Miu has been turning between the terms ambassador, spokesperson, and best friend for many years, and Miu Miu is relatively open to partners, even "regardless of origin".
In 2018, Yang Chao, who had just debuted on a talent show, was officially invited by Miu Miu as the only official Chinese artist to Paris Fashion Week. Until this year, China's 85-year-old actress Wu Yanshu, the young and sweet Zhao Jinmai, and South Korean actress Zhang Yuanying all brought a lot of marketing traffic to Miu Miu.
Thanks to the initial personality girl positioning, Miu Miu's choices are many and flexible, in a sense, it has a broader narrative than other brands, like a small boat, following the sea breeze, adjusting its direction at any time.
And this small ship is of great importance to the entire Prada Group. Although Prada delivered a beautiful financial report in the half of 2023, in recent years, the gap between Prada and luxury giants such as LVMH, Kering and Hermès is widening, Prada's sales in 2013 were 26.9% higher than Hermes, but in 2021 it was less than 40% of Hermès' revenue, and the gap between Prada and LVMH was even greater, only 5.2% of the latter's revenue.
Unlike other high-end luxury, Prada Group has only one brand in the top luxury ranking, and it is not as good as Hermès, which also directly affects its revenue figures.
At present, although Prada Group has many brands such as Prada, Miu Miu, Jil Sander, Church's, etc., the top luxury Prada brand has contributed more than 80% of the group's revenue, and Miu Miu's sales account for only about 10%, which is difficult to pick.
In contrast, although Kering's revenue mainly depends on its main brand Gucci, Gucci accounts for only 55% of sales, and its Yves Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta can stand alone, and their revenue contribution is also increasing.
In the context of slowing demand in the US market and good performance in the Chinese market, Prada needs a small and flexible Miu Miu, whether it is to cultivate the main brand to expand the scale of revenue, or to take advantage of Miu Miu's traffic momentum in China. In addition, smaller and smaller collections are also becoming the mainstream of the fashion industry, and the smaller and flexible new Miu Miu can reduce inventory and delivery pressure, and better adapt to the operation of the market.
However, compared with several competitors, Prada's debt-to-equity ratio in recent years is higher, and there may be greater financial pressure. Miu Miu's positioning of young women means that its product line will flow faster and require higher cash flow, which is also a big test for Prada.
In the 80s of the last century, in order to save the sinking Prada, Miuccia Prada nailed the family's unique inverted triangle iron plate to her favorite nylon bag, making the Prada nylon bag a favorite of the 80s trendy people. Today, will Miu Miu, which she founded, become the iron medal that belongs to Prada?