1 yuan card is sold for 2700 yuan! Balenciaga "pitted" the rich

　　Every year, Balenciaga always launches a few fashion items that ordinary people can't understand.

　　Recently, the brand's "Don't pit the poor" series has been updated: after the 4,000 yuan key hair circle was scolded on the hot search, Balenciaga launched a 2,700 yuan group of "sky-high card issuance", which once again sparked heated discussions.

　　As you can see from the pictures and introduction on the official website, the appearance of this product is almost exactly the same as that of an ordinary iron hairpin, except that the surface is printed with the silver BB Balenciaga logo. Whether in terms of material, craftsmanship, innovation or artistry, it seems that it is difficult to support its high price.

　　For such a "childhood same" iron hair card priced at as high as 2,700 yuan, many netizens expressed puzzlement: "Sure enough, Balenciaga does not deceive the poor." Some people also ridiculed, "I think it's broken!" It thinks I'm poor! ”

　　In fact, Balenciaga's high-priced "ugly things" often lead to waves of buying frenzy after controversy: at present, the card has been shown to be "tight in stock" in many parts of the country, while the same fluorescent pink hairpin launched last season has been "out of stock".

　　This strategy of relying on controversy and topicality to drive sales is not without risk. Analysts believe that "the 'black and red is also red' strategy can indeed quickly enhance the brand's popularity and topicality in the short term, bringing traffic and short-term sales growth to the brand." But in the long run, it can damage the brand's image and reputation, causing the brand image to become obscure or negative. ”

　　The issuance of 1 yuan card has increased by 2,700 times

　　When I saw Balenciaga's 2,700 yuan hairpin, Xiaoxiao (pseudonym) had the first feeling: "I can't understand it." ”

　　She's a big fan of Balenciaga and owns a lot of bags, hats and shoes from the brand, "I think there's a bunch of them in the hairpin store, and I'm probably still a pragmatist, some of their items look good, but some things feel like pure gimmicks and can't be understood." ”

　　On Taobao, Jingdong and other e-commerce platforms, the price of the same card is mostly "5 yuan for 10 pieces", in other words, the average cost of each card is only 0.5 yuan. This means that consumers can easily buy a similar set of cards for only 1 yuan.

　　This price difference begs the question of the logic behind Balenciaga's pricing strategy: what is it that gives brands such a strong pricing confidence? Or can the value of any product multiply hundreds, if not thousands, times more than once it is printed with Balenciaga's iconic "BB Balenciaga" logo?

　　Prior to this, Balenciaga also launched a 4,000 yuan "chartered woman key" hair ring, 6,700 yuan a IKEA bath towel of the same style, 4,700 yuan an Alipay co-branded T-shirt, and then 12,000 bags known as "the world's most expensive garbage bag......

　　In the view of the fashion blogger, it is not surprising that the "hairpin" of 2700 yuan a pair is also part of the brand's stable creative system, "this kind of expensive and strange single item is also the characteristic of this brand or the exclusive idea, which is anti-fashion, dismantling the concept of fashion, the uglier, the more weird, the more futuristic and avant-garde the single item, the more it can attract consumers who appreciate the 'Ba flavor'." ”

　　"Of course, this is also for traffic," she believes that when people talk about Balenciaga's "ugly things", the brand has become the focus of public attention, and then responds with the reason that "advanced fashion is always not understood", in fact, there is a mature set of explosive logic behind it.

　　"Balenciaga is very good at using 'provocative' techniques to arouse people's interest, deliberately creating topics and hot topics to attract the public's attention," Zhang concluded.

　　Net profit of the parent company fell by 62%

　　In 2024, the global luxury market will experience a "cooling-off period".

　　According to the data, the total sales of the global luxury industry will fall to 1.478 trillion euros in 2024, a year-on-year decrease of 2%. At the same time, the industry lost about 50 million consumers in two years, accounting for one-eighth of the total number of high-end consumers in the world.

　　On February 11, Kering announced its 2024 annual results, with group revenue down 12% year-on-year to 17.194 billion euros, and net profit attributable to the group down 62% year-on-year to 1.133 billion euros.

　　In the fourth quarter, the group's revenue and comparable basis were down 12%. Among them, sales of direct retail networks decreased by 13% year-on-year, wholesale and other revenues as a whole decreased by 10%, and wholesale revenue of core brands fell sharply by 25%.

　　Judging from the financial report, the reason for Kering's sharp decline in performance is related to the sluggish sales of its core luxury brand Gucci. Gucci's sales currently account for nearly half of the group's total revenue, but for the full year last year, revenue fell 23% year-on-year to 7.7 billion euros.

　　Kering said the decline was mainly due to the slowdown in the Chinese market, changes in consumer demand and the fact that the brand is still in a period of transformation and adjustment. It is worth mentioning that Kering has announced the termination of its partnership with Gucci's creative director, Sabato De Sarno.

　　In addition to Gucci, the performance of another core brand, Yves Saint Laurent, is also relatively sluggish. Yves Saint Laurent's full-year revenue fell 9% to 2.9 billion euros, while sales in the brand's direct channel decreased 7% year-on-year, but its market performance in North America and the Asia-Pacific region improved significantly.

　　Bottega Veneta's revenue increased by 4% to €1.7 billion, sales increased by 12% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, and the brand's downward trend in the Asia-Pacific market also improved, becoming the only single core brand to grow.

　　It is worth noting that Kering's 2024 performance report shows that other brand businesses, including Balenciaga, fell into losses last year, with losses of 9 million euros, and revenue fell by 8% to 3.221 billion euros, which is experiencing a serious performance decline.

　　Is black and red also red? But there are also concerns

　　At the end of last year, Black Cat complained that it published a post of "being asked to make up money after spending 10,000 yuan to buy Balenciaga for 8 days" and appeared on the hot search.

　　A consumer bought 3 pieces of clothing for more than 10,000 yuan at Balenciaga, and received a WeChat message from the cabinet sister 8 days later, asking her to pay the difference of 1,147 yuan. The counter sister said that because the discount on clothes was suddenly canceled, she could choose to make up the difference or return the clothes to the store. After the consumer refused to make up the price difference, he was directly blocked by the counter sister.

　　This poor shopping experience made the consumer angry, and the related incident quickly spread and fermented on the Internet, causing widespread attention and heated discussions, and Balenciaga has not yet given a clear explanation and proper handling plan.

　　And this isn't the first time Balenciaga has been caught up in a storm of consumer complaints. In terms of black cat complaints, there are a total of 1,489 complaints under the entry of "Balenciaga", including cases of poor shopping experience, product quality problems, and non-refunds.

　　On social media, there are also quite a few consumers who share a bad shopping experience. Some consumers said, "I spent more than 4,000 yuan to buy a T-shirt, but I didn't wear it a few times, and as a result, two big holes were washed, and the quality of thousands of yuan was not as good as that of dozens of yuan." And teased, "This can be said to be full of 'Ba flavor'." ”

　　Yang Huaiyu, a senior researcher at Xia Zhi Liangshi Consulting Management Company and an analyst of the large consumption industry, said, "Balenciaga's 'black and red is also red' strategy can indeed quickly enhance the brand's popularity and topicality in the short term, attracting a lot of attention and discussion. This strategy can quickly attract attention, driving traffic and short-term sales growth for the brand. However, over-reliance on controversial topics can damage a brand's image and reputation in the long run, and this strategy can backfire if brands are unable to translate controversial topics into positive brand image and consumer recognition. ”

　　He emphasized that the long-term spread and spread of consumer dissatisfaction and negative reviews on social media can lead to a blurred or negative brand image. "Balenciaga's failure to react quickly and take effective measures to deal with and resolve a controversial topic can cause irreversible damage to the brand's long-term development, and it will be very difficult to return to the mainstream luxury market once the brand is marginalized in the luxury winter."

(Source: Sina Finance)