Interview With Miao Hongbing, A White Collar Fashion Worker In Beijing

It seems that overnight, the global fashion industry is gathered in China, and is in the layout of the Chinese market.

China's local brands seem to have no strength to fight back.

Even if "white collar" has already established a certain brand of reputation in the industry, it is still difficult to get rid of the imprisoned development of local brands.

The economic downturn, the government's lack of attention, and the retail industry's own problems have highlighted the pressure of the environment.

In this case, what we have to do is stick to it and further improve the customer experience. "

Miao Hongbing, the chairman of the white collar Fashion Co., Ltd. of Beijing, repeatedly stressed "stick to" when he received a reporter's interview.

Abandoning the cheap thinking mode made in China

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What we hope is that we will do our best to identify with our customers.

Reporter: you have talked about many occasions that the clothing industry should be listed as a creative industry rather than a labor manufacturing industry.

How to understand?

There is a great relationship between the strength of a country and its cultural influence, but China has no voice in culture and fashion.

An important reason is that clothing has always been regarded as a manufacturing industry in China, and it is a labor-intensive industry. The industry only attaches importance to employment.

When China hosted the first fashion festival, it was a good sign that the leaders of the country received those foreign designers.

But this time, there was no more.

Initially, the creation of white-collar workers is just a way for me to "go to sea".

At that time, the threshold for entering the garment industry was not high.

My analysis at that time was that after the reform and opening up, people's living standards began to improve, and they began to pay attention to food and clothing, so entering the clothing industry should be a good choice.

Facts have proved that my judgement was right.

And my initial position is to make high-end clothing, aiming at the group that gets rich first.

From the start of business, I defined the "white collar" brand as a creative industry, not a manufacturing industry.

Reporter: how do you price a white-collar? You are not learning design origin, but the design of white-collar workers often depends on your intuition. Some designs may arouse your doubts, but you still put in the market.

What do you think of these doubts?

Miao Hongbing: in terms of price, some people think that China's labor force is cheap, so the products made in China should be cheaper. But I once asked one of our customers: do you think you are a cheap labor force, but he is eager.

This reflects that every person and every brand has a high estimate of their value, and this prediction is evaluated and tested in the market.

We should start to abandon China's thinking mode of cheap manufacturing.

And the added value is also needed to create cost, such as "white-collar" quality services.

I think this is a gift.

As I often say, entrepreneurship is also a gift, not everyone can succeed.

This is especially true for designers. The emergence of a great master may require various factors such as time, place, interests and others.

And for the clothing brand, our design can never please all people, because the more high-end, the more personalized.

So I don't care about some criticism. This shows that our values are different. He is not a guest we can serve.

What white collar hopes is to do our best to identify with our customers.

Reporter: you have always stressed individuality, how to understand the brand personality of "white collar"?

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Miao Hongbing: there are two things in the world. They are the most disloyal, one is the stomach, and they always like to eat different kinds of delicious food.

One is fashion, and the pursuit of fashion is usually the pursuit of an innovative process.

"White collar" positioning itself in the fashion industry will inevitably spare no effort in the pursuit of individuality.

And from the beginning of creating white-collar workers, I have been thinking, how do I stand out when so many people make clothes?

Brand is DNA, when the trademark is removed, consumers can still recognize you, such a brand has its own connotation.

I regard the "white collar" brand as a banner. After years of continuous waving, as long as we stick to it, we will see more and more people, and followers will gradually grow up. At this time, this domain belongs to me.

But at the same time, I must also ensure that this flag will be carried to the highest point forever and get respect from others.

Of course, in this process, your "program" can not be changed back and forth.

So personality does not mean that you need to change every day.

In terms of form, we need variety and novelty, and we have made different attempts in brand promotion. Especially we will do some feature conferences. For example, the location may be selected in Beijing's Wukesong basketball hall, or Beihai.

But the connotation is actually carried out all the time.

White-collar workers also have some clothing, which has been sold for 18 years, and is also creating a symbolic spirit.

For consumers of white-collar clothes, they are not only pursuing fashion and comfort, but also practical. They often pursue clothes that can represent their identity.

According to this demand, these people have already had a pattern in the process of selecting brands.

This mode depends on the long-term research and excavation of enterprises.

And the pattern excavated is the soul of a brand.

Conservatism wins recognition

When the public is able to accept the defects of a brand one day, the brand is respected.

Reporter: "white-collar" in the industry's strict requirements are well-known, for example, to serve customers without the consumption is embarrassed to go out.

It is said that you even ask for the length of the two lengths of the tie to the centimeter, and ask for a kneeling service. Why do you make such a demanding request?

Miao Hongbing: until today, Chinese people still have no seats in the global fashion circle.

The meaning of "brand" in brand is the need for many words, that is, the need for public communication to affirm.

When I founded "white collar" 18 years ago, China did not have the concept of brand, so at that time, I felt that as long as the brand was made, the distance from others could be drawn away.

At that time, my way was to pay attention to brand packaging.

At that time, the Chinese did not have the concept of packaging. The best clothes were the same from the appearance of the packaging.

So I began to make some innovations, such as displaying our bags and providing a valuable feeling.

Of course, the most important thing is service.

This is also the concept that Chinese did not have at that time.

There was no sofa in the mall, because the white collar began to innovate and put the sofa in the shop.

At that time, our idea was not to let our target customers "women" sit down, but to let men sit down.

If we compare the high-end brand and white-collar service from the service angle, the service provided by "white collar" may be better, because we know that we are not strong enough to treat our customers with "cold marketing". We must win the consumers with top service.

I ask employees to pay attention to details in the company, for example, they have already started to rub their feet before entering the door, do not bring dust into the office; after washing their hands in the washroom, they will wipe the water near the pool.

The development of these habits is to let them experience details, and develop the habit of paying attention to details.

Reporter: so, is there a quantitative standard for the so-called extreme experience? Some big brands abroad, even though there are so-called "cold marketing" in international brands, but they also attach great importance to the consumer experience.

How do you feel the mentality of consumers?

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Miao Hongbing: my principle is "only half a step".

At present, Chinese people do not know much about fashion, so I think that too much is useless, which will lead consumers to be unable to accept it.

This conservative attitude leads us to be different in the process of brand building.

The concept of foreign brands is relatively focused on the way of position.

After all, because their brand has developed to a certain stage, he has a great say.

Relatively speaking, the way of international brand is to tell stories and do things, creating a romantic process.

But we can't be romantic. We need to be honest, because Chinese consumers are more real. If you insist on romance, you will be considered sick.

When we run brand names, we propose "happiness marketing". The so-called happiness marketing is to find the critical point of happiness in human psychology.

Too much is too low, nor too low.

For example, in the face of our customers, if tens of thousands of prices are priced, it will give her a sense of oppression, but if it is priced hundreds of dollars, it will feel that it does not match its identity.

For example, we can never think of ideas that customers can think of, and we can't design things beyond their understanding.

Reporter: excessive pursuit of details, will increase the cost of enterprises? In the environment is not good, the cost of this area will not be reduced?

Miao Hongbing: it will cost money, but I also insist that it must be done and can not be reduced.

As a high-end brand, the most important thing should be the consumer's sense of experience.

When the public is able to accept the defects of a brand one day, the brand is respected.

In the future, we may develop into a design that will be collected worldwide.

This customization process is not always done by ourselves, but one of the principles is to maintain our consistent quality and style.

Apple did very well in that respect, and the world was working for it, but Jobs insisted on his philosophy, that is, the consumer experience.

It is not convenient for me to disclose the cost ratio, but we have fixed promotional expenses every year, and this year has also increased.

And no matter what form of sales channels, we will let consumers experience our ideas.

For example, we have added a lot of VIP services to the customers in the shop, including pick-up machines.

All these attempts are to let all our customers, as always, experience the service of "white collar".

In particular, I find that online customers are more demanding for us because they can not experience the services of our physical stores, so we need to think about how to understand the value added of our products and how to achieve them through the Internet.

Slow down, be steady.

In such a depressed environment, it is precisely the opportunity for team building.

Reporter: you have always mentioned that the retail industry has encountered a great crisis and called for the whole industry chain to be held together for the winter.

Miao Hongbing: there is no doubt about the decline of the environment.

At that time, the government used 4 trillion to stimulate the market, so it did not make us feel the pressure of the global financial crisis. However, this year, the effect of 4 trillion gradually weakened.

This is not just a crisis in the retail industry, it is a problem that all walks of life have to face.

The contradiction of retailing itself is more prominent in such a big environment.

Many industrial industries, such as automobiles, have long begun to stress the common development of the industrial chain.

However, in the clothing industry, awareness is still relatively backward.

Especially for sales terminals, that is, shopping malls, and so on, is still squeezing brand suppliers further.

They will shift the economic crisis they face to the suppliers, such as setting up higher and higher guarantee for the completion of our tasks, or demanding a high level of buckles. Some stores even have reached 40%.

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On the other hand, it is also grim, that is, the impact of international brands on us.

Of course, their strength in economy and brand marketing is beyond doubt.

But not every brand can be more profitable than the local brand.

But the state has given a lot of bias to the tax policy, and the shopping malls will condescend to give them the best position.

All these are squeezing the ascendant space of local brands.

Reporter: in a recent period, the environment is not good.

In this case, is there any adjustment in your expansion strategy this year?

Miao Hongbing: the bad environment has really reduced the performance of white-collar workers this year, up to 4% now.

There have been some recent adjustments. For example, we planned to open 10 stores nationwide this year, and now we have reduced it to 4~5.

We must slow down to better cope with the overall economic crisis.

I think enterprises in the future should learn to survive in low profit mode.

In addition, we plan to make some experience promotion on the original store.

For example, the change in the image of our store has launched a red shop concept this year, which implies a red flag and gives people some hope in a bad economic environment.

In addition, we create more gardening concepts in our shops. Our guests will see trees, flowers, butterflies, and even a gardening bike in the shop, so that we can feel a relaxed elegance and comfort.

All these are psychological care for consumers and increase consumer's sense of experience.

In a relaxed mood, he will be more affectionate towards your products.

I think we can only try to do several things at this time.

The first is the enhanced sense of experience I mentioned just now, giving customers more surprises.

At the same time, we should take advantage of this time to improve our internal skills, further develop our products and make differentiation.

Of course, it is very important to do a good job of the team. I even organize staff to play volleyball fitness every day. I play with my staff.

At this time, we must advocate physical fitness, including employees and enterprises.

Finally, we are always prepared. We will make some plans for the economic development of good or bad.

Reporter: when it comes to team building, it is well known that the human cost has increased very rapidly in the past two years. As you said, you are no longer a cheap labor force.

Does this affect the "white collar"?

Miao Hongbing: there must be an impact. Our labor costs are growing very fast.

When I first set up a white-collar, the salary system I designed is comparable to that of PetroChina, which is 2 times the same level.

But now the wages of state-owned enterprises are growing so fast that our private enterprises can not keep up with them. But I still guarantee that the average daily wage of my employees is increased by 0.33 yuan, which is generally reflected in their time to come to the company and will be reflected in their monthly wages.

Of course, this will further dilute the profits of enterprises.

But I prefer to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, but also to ensure the interests of employees. As I mentioned earlier, in such a depressed environment, it is the right time for team building.

"White collar" is an enterprise that demands highly unified values. Many unsuitable people have left, and those left behind can work together better.

Reporter: the department store industry that you mentioned before not long ago has also affected suppliers like you.

Would you consider building a diversified marketing channel?

Miao Hongbing: our own sales channels have been established, but this is not an easy thing, because the "white collar" brand is not the kind of rapid expansion, there are many stores.

Moreover, "white-collar" is not ready to go public, or to introduce other funds. Our current profits can support our normal operation and development.

From the beginning of the establishment of white-collar workers, my principle has always been stability.

For many years, there are only dozens of stores in the country. On the one hand, because our positioning is high-end, we have higher requirements for site selection and construction.

In addition, it is also my own character.

High end brands must build their own networks, such as a set of shop opening systems, such as where you choose, airport, street, business center, or shopping center.

Several channels can reduce risks, but the allocation of funds may also be a problem.

In addition, the establishment of network sales is also what we are discussing, but for high-end brands, how to form a good channel to promote sales channels, we are also evaluating and practicing.

Above all, you must not lower your posture or change your mind in any case.

Even if we do network marketing, many people think our products are too expensive for the Internet, but we still can not give up our position. Only by sticking to it can we continue our brilliance after the recession.