I often think about a question: who is visiting the women's clothing store on the second floor of the mall?
Nowadays, young people in their twenties take root on the B1 and B2 floors, and enter the mall just to see the MINISO and Cool Tide Play first, and then eat some pre-made dishes.
And the women's clothing store on the second floor, which has always maintained a four-digit price, is always crowded, but it is always brightly lit, which has to make people feel a kind of mystery.
AMONG THEM, "GIRDEAR" (GIRDEAR) CAN BE SAID TO BE THE MOST MYSTERIOUS ONE, WITH A NAME THAT IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH "WOMEN'S CLOTHING", SINCE I FOLLOWED MY MOTHER WHEN I WAS A CHILD, TENACIOUSLY SURVIVED TO THIS DAY, AND SEEMS TO BE LIVING QUITE WELL.
Brother's field, who is holding it?
The answer to this question is usually: "Your aunt in the system, her aunt who works in a bank, and my mother who is a class teacher." ”
Whose business does the brother want to do, you will know when you pass by the window: when the primary school head teacher talks about the open class of the whole district, he wears such a long skirt; Mom's old classmate who became the director also wore such a shirt with a halterneck silk scarf at the party; Friends who have to deal with interviews in state-owned enterprises will urgently buy such a pair of suit pants.
Photo source: Xiaohongshu @金鹰 brother Xiaoxia
The fabrics and money saved by the fast fashion downstairs are here, the style is mainly a decent and dignified, the temperament is a calm and heavy, and the price has always been maintained at the level of thousands of children.
Over the years, my brother has specialized in the aunts who have money and leisure in the system, and my brother's ten-year old customer, Aunt Xiaoqiao, told me that those who have a little money and a little "status", such as teachers and office workers in the system, buy more brothers.
However, now there are many migrant workers who have not yet reached the age of aunts, and they have begun to call their brothers "really fragrant", and the shortcomings that they disliked back then have now become advantages.
The biggest slot "old-fashioned" has long been incompatible, when "Little Times" was born, setting off a trend of urban workplace dramas that must be dressed with bells and whistles, and now watching workplace dramas, the protagonist is wearing a small fragrance of one-to-one copy and paste, who is fashionable and who is old-fashioned is already feng shui in turn.
Stunning White Moonlight丨Image source: Xiaohongshu @ Spoon goes to Changbai Mountain
Nowadays, the style of "serious work in the sense of Shandong at a glance" is called "department style", "state-owned enterprise style" and "system internal style", which is not old-fashioned but Chinese-style old money.
In the past, you thought that this kind of clothes were too "old" and unfashionable, but after dyeing the smell of work, you found that the highest gold content in the workplace is the kind that looks stable and "fresh graduates, with 30 years of work experience".
This kind of fashion does not pick the occasion, whether you are going to speak PPT on stage today or make minutes in the corner of the conference room, whether you want to follow the leader to participate in a dinner or gag with colleagues, a small cardigan and a draped pants, faintly exuding a reliable but not robbing the atmosphere.
Interesting, not interesting; Does it work, it's useful.
This fashion is time-saving. There is no need to memorize the precautions for washing, drying, ironing and other precautions that are thick into a small book, and when you get home after moving bricks one day, throw them into the washing machine and everything will be fine. Aunt Xiaoqiao's personal experience is that the quality of her brother and brother was quite good, and it was much easier to take care of mulberry silk than to carry it and wash it, and it was also free dry cleaning and ironing for life, and the clothes she bought more than ten years ago pilled and can now be taken back to deal with.
What's more time-saving is that you don't need to think about how to match it, because the clerk will match it all for you when you buy it.
The clerk of the elder brother, a kind of urban legend.
It is said that they can turn decay into magic, the ugly and earthy clothes on the plastic models, after their matching, can make you can't take your eyes off the full-length mirror, can't take a step in front of the cash register, go in with a casual look, and come out with 21 clothes;
Image source: Xiaohongshu @ earned it again
They have the matching skills comparable to "Future Supermodel", and the memory capacity of "The Strongest Brain", what have customers who have bought two or three times a year, they are like a stream, what age should the children of customers who visit once in two or three years, they are like a few treasures.
Don't ask why there are always more women in the sales crown, because strong business ability also gives enough emotional value. You were originally wary of sales, but in the end, in the call of "sister" and "sister" one after another, in the targeted praise of the mouth, in the short push of the heart of the parents, softened the heart of the stone, and empty the waist bag and money bag.
Aunt Xiaoqiao said that regular customers have a special person in charge of their brothers, and this exclusive sales knows what color you are suitable for, your body size, and knows your preferences.
Fast fashion now loves to use high-value clerks to attract customers, and at every turn find trainees who have been angry or hopeless to debut to the front desk for re-employment, one by one working in the store like a catwalk, waiting to be secretly photographed by customers and sent to Xiaohongshu, reaching the peak of traffic in this life, but I don't understand that the fundamentalist sales of my brother is the core competitiveness that makes customers spend more and more money.
When you enter the brother, you buy a set of clothes, and in every morning when you can sleep for an extra minute and never get up 60 seconds early, grab a set from the closet and put it on.
Of course, this is quite expensive. A brother can easily get a thousand for a cardigan and a dress, three or four thousand for a tweed jacket, and 800 for a pair of dad shoes, which is more expensive than Fila, the mainstay of dad shoes.
But although the brother is expensive, the good thing is that he never discounts.
This is not the opposite. Think about what you are most worried about when buying fast fashion, worrying that 399 will change to 259 and 259 to 79 the next day after buying; What is most worried about buying luxury goods, regardless of high luxury and light luxury, I am afraid that the things I bought at the regular price will not be seen by the outlets after a long time.
At this time, the brother looks fresh and refined, all nine folds, forever nine folds, there is no clearance sale, anyway, the goods in the warehouse grow almost the same every year, there is no big price reduction in the season, anyway, it can be sold again next year.
On the one hand, this method avoids the hidden worry of customers "buying a loss", and on the other hand, it also seems to be very tonal. Aunt Xiaoqiao said: "Whoever goes is at this price, no matter how rich you are, no matter how much you consume, there is no exception, and you will not be given anything to spend 10,000 or 20,000 people, nor will you give it away, and the tone will rise all of a sudden." ”
It's unlikely that you'll expect it to be cheap, but at least no one else will buy it cheaper than you; You think it's expensive, but people haven't raised the price for so many years, unlike Chanel's fun-loving mentality, which has risen by 50,000 in five years, and it is not the most astonishing in the second-floor store of the mall where the price has swelled faster than the currency.
People who are used to buying brothers will also tell you, don't look at the price when you buy it, and dilute it for a long time, it will be cost-effective. Some people say that the pants of the brother's family have been machine washed for 10 years, and they are still not deformed when they return; Some people said that there were no clothes suitable for the interview, and they wore a mother's brother shirt, and they were about the same age as themselves.
The younger brother is like Cui Jinxi in the family, first loyal to Chunyuan, and then loyal to Zhen Huan.
Aunt Xiaoqiao has a little black dress that has been worn for twelve or thirteen years, and she hasn't worn it for a long time, but she has always kept it: "Now like me in my 50s, there are more people who like to wear athleisure. ”
Xiaoqiao's brother's booty丨Image source interviewee
Besides, in the price of the younger brother, there is also a brand premium as a "strict selection of leaders".
Aunt Xiaoqiao's feeling is, "Brother is a big brand in a small place, he can satisfy vanity and have face."
So another function of the brothers in the county town is: to give gifts. "In the past few years, it was particularly popular to give my brother a stored-value card on Teacher's Day - it was said that it was a stored-value card, but in fact, there was no physical card, so I told the clerk who I had recharged and how much money I had recharged, and I just came to try on clothes according to the price."
It is very popular with aunts, and now it is gradually getting the attention of young people, and the brother seems to have been living well all these years.
I say "it seems" because my brother has not been listed, the financial information is not public, and the bosses and executives do not like to record short videos for self-media, and rarely accept interviews, so that most of the rumors are broken news in the market, for example, some industry insiders revealed that the revenue of the brother in the clothing industry in 2022 will be as high as billions.
According to the "Growth Black Box", citing people familiar with the matter, the revenue of the brother on Douyin alone in 2022 will be nearly 1.2 billion yuan, and the revenue as of October 2023 will be close to 1.8 billion yuan, and the live broadcast of the video number that will be deployed in 2022 will also create an annual revenue of 5 or 600 million yuan.
And 10 years ago, when "China Textile News" reported on the elder brother, it also found that the evaluation of the elder brother in the industry was mostly "high profit margin" and "good sales". Wu Jianmin, chairman of Shulang Group, a large clothing company, told reporters at the time: "Among women's clothing brands, the profit margin of the elder brother should be able to rank in the top 10." ”
To live well, you have to rely on the loving offerings of your aunts and sisters.
Accurately targeting the target audience is the first step for the brother to take the right step.
In 1977, the brother company was founded in Taiwan Province of China, and its brand is not only the brother but also AMASS, that is, the one that is usually opened next to the brother in the shopping mall, and the price is more niche than the brother.
In the early 90s of the last century, the younger brother entered the mainland and settled in the Guangzhou Baima clothing market. At that time, Baima was already a well-known garment city in the country, bringing together the best distribution and franchise resources in the country, for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan-funded garment enterprises, it was an excellent springboard to open up the mainland market.
The mainland market soon became the main battlefield to support the elder brother, and a few years after entering Baima, the brand headquarters of the elder brother moved to Guangzhou.
The younger brother founded himself, aiming at middle-aged women, and he is a middle-aged woman who is willing to spend money on clothes but does not know much about clothing matching.
It is reported that the brother's stores are all over the country, and more than half are located in third-tier cities, where consumers do not necessarily have less money than first- and second-tier cities, and the requirements for brands are not necessarily lower than those in first- and second-tier cities, but the brand choice is definitely less than that in first- and second-tier cities, which is suitable for brothers.
Deng Ning, manager of the marketing department of Baima Clothing, once said: "My brother has a clear positioning for himself from the beginning and does not make fashion products. Although the price of its products was higher than that of other brands in the market at that time, the brother insisted on the development model of not doing discount promotions from the beginning. ”
Find the target audience, pick out their needs, and plan a customized route to get the wallet directly.
The starting point of this path is not fashion – after all, the financiers don't know much about it – but practicality.
Back then, the younger brother started with pants, and divided the pants that didn't look much different into many categories, such as 100% pants, magic pants, beautiful leg pants, cha cha pants, etc., among which the four-sided elastic little black pants with the hip line were added to the signature level of existence, and the longitudinal and horizontal layers were added to the high-elastic fabric spandex yarn to achieve the effect of being comfortable and showing the figure.
Of course, the fashion section can't be said to be completely absent. In 2018, the brother's "replica plagiarism of big names" once caused heated discussions, and the idea of design was complained about on the one hand, and on the other hand, it was also considered a successful business model, which saved design manpower and R&D costs, and secondly, there was no need for trial and error.
Source: Official account CHRISON
The manpower of design can be saved, but the manpower of sales is the lifeblood of the younger brother.
The real NPC is the brother's unique secret book - don't you know how to match, the clerk will take it for you, and then use a three-inch tongue to let you buy five or six hundred brooches and belts at every turn.
Under a Zhihu question about "brother's work experience", a former employee said in a reply post in September 2021 that brother recruits clerks especially pay attention to height, weight, and appearance, and the strictness of the standards is comparable to that of Hollyland, because dry sales are "really brainwashing", and those who are not suitable have to be said to be suitable, "reversing black and white for sales"; A reply post in March 2020 said that the clerk had to take pictures of the clothes every day, three sets a day, and five sets a day when there were no customers, and post them to Moments after the shooting.
Who is it for? For the customer, of course.
This has to talk about the magic weapon of the younger brother - VIP mode.
We don't ask for love at first sight, but for a long time, come to be a friend, don't leave after buying, leave a phone and WeChat, the new model to your first try. The brother uses a complete set of sales to spell the unit price of the customer, and also spells the repurchase rate.
A Zhihu user posted a document that was said to come from his brother's internal in December 2021, and his efforts to "maintain old customers" were terrifying: making 10 phone calls a day, contacting 20 customers one-on-one on WeChat, and sending 50 messages a day to the circle of friends. This frequency, this perseverance, micro-businesses have to kowtow to apprentice, a brother sales is a walking roster, mastering the county's noble lady network.
Some people can't stand the phone and WeChat being bombarded indiscriminately, and some people are very useful. It is said that the popular shopping method among the brother and brother VIP is exactly the same as the classic routine of the boss Shuangwen: "This, this, this, don't, don't, wrap up the rest." ”
If the customer shirks that he is too busy and has no time to go to the store to try the new style, the eight-sided brother sales will also provide door-to-door service, take a few sizes of the right customer, and send them to the door for you to try on at home, and then take it back if it is not suitable. Xiaoqiao said that the purpose of sales is "not to lose old customers", the other party refuses to answer the phone, then change the phone and then call, in short, it is a sentence: sister, come to the new style, try it.
Wu Jianmin, chairman of Shulang Group, once estimated that "the annual VIP sales of the elder brother should account for 60%~80% of its overall revenue".
The reason why it is so hard is because the trading volume is directly related to how much money can be taken this month.
The above-mentioned Zhihu user not only posted the KPI of "maintaining customer relationship", but also posted the salary rating table of the elder brother, which shows that the basic salary of the lowest-level sales consultant is 3500-5500 yuan, and the commission is calculated according to the formula of "(completion score - guaranteed minimum score) * coefficient", in which the minimum guarantee score and coefficient are proportional to the basic salary level, and the user also said that selling 800 yuan is counted as 1 point.
In the county seat, the commission of the brother clerk may be regarded as the top of the pyramid, after all, the price of the brand, the customer consumption of 1,000 yuan is more, and in the brother "a match is a complete set" sales model, the base of the clerk's commission can even start at 10,000 yuan.
Later, as the limelight of offline physical stores was completely overshadowed by e-commerce, my brother also started to engage in live broadcast in 2018, and the essence is still to "sell matching for private domain traffic". Every time there is a live broadcast, the brother will send a preview on the official account to guide fans to make an appointment, and the live broadcast room will also embed the official account link, and the brand headquarters and regional stores will open live broadcasts, and the focus of the explanation is still collocation, which is equivalent to "revitalizing" the old customers who have accumulated in the store and eating this set.
From the live broadcast of the video account to the monthly turnover of more than 10 million, it took less than a year for the brothers who did not discount or promote, of which the contribution of the repurchase of old customers accounted for seventy.
Nowadays, the "Auntie brand" is selling very well, and Koradior's parent company Winner Fashion, Vgrass's parent company Jinhong Group, Golisi and other clothing brands that focus on middle-aged women who are not bad for money, and their performance in 2023 will rise against the general trend of "economic downturn". At the same time, the "county lady" has also become the object of competition for various brands in other fields.
Since its establishment in 1977, he has aimed at the younger brother of the "county lady", which can be called a detour of 40 years.
In fact, in addition to Amashi, there is also a well-known brand called "Brother is really good", take the route of "Thanksgiving Feedback" at a low price, the price is about the same as ZARA, and at present, on the Tmall flagship store and video number, "Brother" and "Brother is really good" are mixed to buy. But in February this year, Brother stated on the official website that "Brother is Really Good" is completely operated by different teams, and the authorization will expire in 2025, "Our company is not responsible for the brand's perennial comparison with Brother brand in the market."
Maybe I still plan to stick to the line of "county lady" and not waver.
Speaking of which, growing up is really a long history of "true fragrance".
When I was a child, I didn't like to eat broccoli, but when I lost weight during puberty, boiled broccoli became the greatest sense of security;
When I was a child, I didn't look down on "the life that can see the end at a glance", and now I count the points every Monday and wait for the horoscope blogger to send fortunes, and it is a great comfort to be able to see the end of the week at a glance;
When I was a child, I was disdainful of the second floor of the shopping mall that my mother loved to visit that year, and only after working did I find out the gold content of "durability without mistakes", and began to understand the stability and moisture of "county lady".
I've given up thinking about who's on the second floor of the mall, B1B2 is fine.
Edit | Tachibana Chief Author | Childish design | Fat Rabbit cover image source | Xiaohongshu @ brother senior store manager Qianqian