Two years ago, when I first arrived in Shanghai, Irene Lau, vice president of Lane Crawford Greater China, specially stopped a taxi and told the driver to go to Lane Crawford. The master asked her: Where is Lane Crawford? At that time she realized that many people did not know that the 160-year-old department store returned to Shanghai.
In fact, Taixing, the predecessor of this boutique department store, was born in Shanghai and is one of the “four big companies†in the old Shanghai period. In 2000, Lane Crawford once again entered the mainland market and adopted a franchise model to introduce high-end brands to the mainland, but the timing was not mature. In 2007, Lane Crawford opened the Beijing Financial Street store. At that time, the number of brands was around 600, and more than half of them were unveiled in the Chinese market for the first time. In 2013, Lane Crawford returned to Shanghai and reopened its flagship store at the original site on the eastern end of Huaihai Zhong Road. This is the second time that Lane Crawford has expanded in the mainland market.
According to the world clothing and footwear network, today, Lane Crawford has achieved double-digit growth for two consecutive years. Four branches have been opened in mainland China, with more than 1,000 brands, and online e-commerce and physical store goods overlap. Up to 90%, the domestic boutique department store has been firmly standing on the heels. So, what happened during the four years?
Chengdu Lane Crawford Women's Wear Area
If it is the consumer who has experienced Lane Crawford's first entry into the mainland, the first impression of this century-old brand is probably "expensive." In 2004, when the Hangzhou store was opened, the local media used words such as “high price†and “luxury†to describe it. However, in 2007, the average consumption expenditure of 16 urban residents in the Yangtze River Delta region calculated by the National Bureau of Statistics was about 13,000 yuan - in Lane Crawford, this may be the price of just one handbag.
Even the consumers who were capable at the time, the most important thing is the brand awareness. The problems that followed were not only the consumer's disapproval of the buyer's system and the designer's brand, but also the unfamiliarity with the Lane Crawford brand. Liu Yuying said: "Hong Kong Lane Crawford is 167 years old. Everyone knows what Lane Crawford is when they are born. But on the mainland, we have opened a Beijing store for ten years. There are still many people who don’t know that there is a Lane Crawford store on Financial Street. ."
Image building is the number one problem faced by this century-old brand. Even as a luxury department store, Liu Yuying hopes that the general public can know what kind of company Lane Crawford is. “I told the public relations and marketing team to help Lane Crawford in this new market. They are also very smart, use me to promote Lane Crawford. It’s too hard to talk with the media. But with people, I am interested in many people. For example, in 29 years, only a company in Lane Crawford, or a Hong Kong person came to the mainland, and slowly people started talking about it."
Let the vice president of Greater China participate in the promotion of live broadcast activities, in full compliance with the current trend of communication. Deloitte pointed out in the "2015 China Media Consumer Survey" that Chinese users are more likely to recognize the use of social platforms by companies or brands. The emergence of social media has allowed business leaders to step down from the altar, and the image of the people who are present can help to enhance the brand's goodwill. This is the habit of Chinese users to recognize the brand, and it is also the starting point for Lane Crawford to reshape its image.
What does it mean to shape an affinity image? The answer is not just the consumer's goodwill towards the brand, but the transformation of the consumer mentality. One-way authoritative information instillation no longer applies. The Baidu Marketing Research Institute report shows that the Internet has lowered the threshold and allowed more consumers to express more with updated expressions. In some industries that fully embrace young consumers, products are designed to penetrate the culture of this group, even by consumers or directly or indirectly involved in product creation.
Liu Yuying, Vice President, Lane Crawford Greater China
Chinese consumers are looking for a more equal consumption environment than a party buying one. The task of adapting to new customer relationships and merging them with the buyer model falls on Lane Crawford's personal image consultant. A large number of professional consultants have worked in fashion media, or after studying fashion design, they have chosen to contact consumers directly to understand customer needs as much as possible.
“There is no company in China that can provide personal image consultants and help customers mix and match among more than a thousand brands. We hope that the relationship between consultants and customers is not for business, but for people who know how to be like girlfriends. More, find out the preferences from personal life patterns," Liu Yuying said.
Two years ago, Lane Crawford sent a personal image consultant to the Fashion Week with the buyer team. Buyers pay attention to data and reports, image consultants supplement consumers' preferences and needs, and even make reservations for guests. "When our buyers are in Showroom, they will take photos and send them to guests, and customers will place orders immediately," Liu Yuying told reporters. . The greatest understanding of the preferences of the target consumers is to reduce the risk of inventory pressure. An image consultant who is familiar with the customer's preferences, to some extent, represents the consumer and participates in the process of Lane Crawford's selection of goods and combinations.
This is a path that requires caution and care, because consumers' aesthetic tastes are ever-changing, while pursuing uniqueness and individuality. Accenture's "China Consumer Insight" points out that more than 60% of urban consumers do not want to buy the same goods with other consumers, which is especially common among young consumers. The biggest risk of buying hand-made department stores is slow sales, especially in the buyout mode, which faces inventory backlog once it cannot be sold. At this point, the department store form and the buyer pattern are not harmonious. The department store form needs to take into account various categories in the quantity and pedigree of the goods, and at the same time give a certain amount of inventory for each category or item.
On the one hand, Lane Crawford’s buyers are looking for styles with sales potential, and on the other hand, training the entire team and using a streamlined approach to consumer education. "The delivery of information points," Liu Yuying told reporters, "If we say this year's popular pink, we will not say Chloe's pink, or Alexander McQueen's pink, it's just pink. When the information spreads out, set a few directions. â€
The store does not resemble the traditional department store by brand, but the theme to draw the area. The way of display is also the way to spread information points. A certain area may involve two or three hundred brands or designer works, but all about the same theme.
At the same time, there are Chinese designers. They also need to consider something that is really relevant to the needs of their customers.
In 2015, Lane Crawford hosted the “Creative Assembly†and continued to this day. As part of Lane Crawford's new designer and brand development program, the program selected a local designer to provide it at Lane Crawford. Display and promotion opportunities for works across Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and online stores. A series of designers including Ms Min, Angel Chen and Xu Zhi have received support from Lane Crawford.
Lane Crawford not only provides a platform for Chinese designers to sell, but more importantly, in the process of cooperation with each other, the designers have obtained business advice from Lane Crawford international standards, and Lane Crawford also Gained a new design of new blood.
When Liu Yuying first met Lu Yan, his personal brand Comme Moi has not yet formed a scale, only a dozen styles, the version is not yet fixed. "I told her that your version should not be changed every season. The guests who used to like your clothes, now wear it and find out how small? If you like your version, you will like your other things. You catch The design elements of each season are all right," said Liu Yuying. After Lane Crawford introduced Comme Moi and established an exclusive partnership, the brand has gradually grown into a brand with more than 200 SKUs in a season.
In addition to the type problems that Lu Yan has encountered, Chen Xuzhi has used too heavy fabrics. Shu Shu/Tong of Lei Liushu and Jiang Yutong once had a waist with a narrow waist, which is a sales and image in the first line. The details of the concern of the consultant. They gave this feedback to the designer for rectification. In the past, designers may only care about design, but after coming to Lane Crawford, they need to systematically learn what a mature operating model is, including delivery time, size ratio, sales, and even how to deal with the media – and these The details are closely related to the consumer.
“In the past few years, Chinese designers have gradually matured. There may be some areas to improve, such as the use of fabrics, but the style and craftsmanship are not bad at all. The biggest feature of Lane Crawford is that not only do big names. On the contrary, we tapped some niche brands to make them bigger.†Liu Yuying told reporters that the cutting-edge designers are still the focus of Lane Crawford in the future. Considering that top brands are limited or similar in terms of product mix and style positioning, the prospects and potential of new generation designers are considerable.
During the Shanghai Fashion Week, the designer dinner hosted by Lane Crawford was hosted by Liu Yuying.
Not long ago, Lane Crawford also hosted a Chinese designer dinner to pay tribute to the future, including Lu Yan, Wang Fengchen, Chen Xuzhi, Evening Yu, Lei Liushu and Jiang Yutong, and Li Yushan. Dozens of designers, including Pronounce, gathered to talk to Lane Crawford's brand, buyer, messaging and retail team.
“A lot of people want to try new things, new brands. And what we do, the brands we choose – like Chloe, we don’t go into more than two hundred models, we only pick fifty, these fifty It is our favorite of Carver guests. Personal image consultants can combine different brands of products, we like to offer some diversified choices. This is our special feature."
After reinventing the brand, Lane Crawford teamed up with a buyer and a personal image consultant to bring consumers and designers together. Consumers no longer only have to pay for the expression of a single card, the designer is not only selling figures. It creates a consumer system in which all parties have a voice, which is a flow in the wave of China's consumption upgrade. What Lane Crawford has gained from it is to present a complete set of fashion selection mechanisms trusted by consumers in front of consumers.
Now Liu Yuying is getting used to joining the new media activities of Lane Crawford. Last week, Lane Crawford official Weibo released her men's suit custom video. In the screen, she took the needlework and smiled and explained the tailoring of the suit.
"I didn't get used to it at the beginning, but now I accept it slowly. The Chinese region is too big, more than a billion people, so there must be such a special way to communicate. The audience is also very direct, directly speaking to me what is the color code of the lipstick? "What brand? How much?" She hopes that even Carver will combine the online and offline communication business to reach 1.3 billion people. "We hope to open up all of China and let them all see Lane Crawford."
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