Health awareness profoundly influences sport branding – Ashley Dudarenok

 

Ashley Dudarenok

Health awareness has a profound influence on the requirements of consumers, and brands should pay notice, says marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok tells the Jing Daily.“Women’s athleisure needs to be both fashionable and professional,” she says.

The Jing Daily:

Growing health awareness,government initiatives, and major sporting events such as the Olympics have also contributed to the desire for an active lifestyle. In April 2022, 67 million Chinese people were using fitness apps to work out at home.

“Driven by the fast-paced life, people desire to get rid of the shackles of stress and want to have a relaxed and dynamic living atmosphere,” states Ashley Dudarenok, founder of Chinese marketing agency Chozan and Alarice. “Athleisure wear has become one of the fashion choices for young people because of its comfortable wear, both functional and casual, and can easily cope with multiple scenes in work and life.”…

The booming sector indicates a lucrative opportunity for activewear, but brands need to be aware of women’s diverse demand. “Women’s athleisure needs to be both fashionable and professional,” remarks Dudarenok. “Nearly 65 percent of female sports consumers prioritize the need for dressing. And functionality, design, and quality are also the main factors considered.”..

Premium players are also foraying independently into elite sports. Given China’s skiing boom, brands like Max Mara, Prada, and Fendi have all ventured into alpine collections, creating fashionable ski looks and astonishing pop-ups near resorts. Besides skiing, upper class lifestyle sports like golf, tennis, snowboarding are becoming a new outlet for fashion luxury items. “By investing in these trendy categories, luxury brands can find and connect with their targeted audience quickly and effectively,” points out Dudarenok.

More at the Jing Daily.

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How Shein keeps an edge on its competitors – Matthew Brennan

 

Matthew Brennan

Fashion firm Shein belongs to a new breed of ultra-fast fashion brands that keeps an edge on its more traditional competitors, says innovation expert Matthew Brennan at the Vox. Why is Shein going to crunch fashion companies like Zara?

The Vox:

Toward the tail end of the 2010s, “ultra-fast” fashion brands — Asos, Boohoo, Fashion Nova, and now Shein — emerged as viable competitors to the dominant fashion empires of the previous decade. Last October, Reuters reported that investors think “Zara … is going to be crushed by fast fashion 2.0.” These ultra-fast fashion companies are able to reach millions of young shoppers directly through social media without the need for physical retail space, and relied on search traffic and customer data to foreshadow trends.

But by virtue of Shein’s location and software technology, the retailer developed a speedy edge on its competitors. Matthew Brennan, a Beijing-based writer and analyst of Chinese technology, likened its pace to “real-time” retail. That means Shein is constantly gathering and analyzing customer data and uses that knowledge to craft new designs — within as little as three days.

“Each new design is basically a bet because Shein can estimate how well a product is going to do, but it doesn’t know for sure until it sells,” Brennan explained. “Compared to its fast fashion competitors, Shein is able to take more bets, but at a lower risk. It’s able to place very small initial orders with these factories, about 100 or even smaller.” These batches were much smaller than Zara’s and that of ultra-fast fashion retailers like Boohoo, which reportedly ordered about 300 to 500 units per style. If a specific top goes viral overnight on TikTok, for example, Shein will be able to instantaneously ramp up production on the garment and place additional orders depending on demand.

Shein has spent years cultivating relationships with Chinese garment factories and manufacturers, whereas most Western brands generally outsource this work. Inditex is similarly situated close to a garment production center in the northeast region of Spain, but according to Brennan, business in China moves much faster.

“Shein doesn’t work with very large factories but [with] small to mid-sized workshops that pick up orders daily,” Brennan said. “It’s very much like an Uber system, where new orders are coming into factory owners’ phones and they receive the order. It’s very scrappy, but efficient.”

More at the Vox.

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China’s consumers following global anti-fur movement – Shaun Rein

 

Shaun Rein

The fur trade focuses on China, as consumers in the rest of the world shun their products, convinced by the animal-rights movement. But China’s consumers are likely to follow, says Shanghai-based business analyst Shaun Rein, and they are likely to heed the anti-fur trend, he tells Vogue Business.

Vogue Business:

For those luxury brands that are continuing to use fur, the focus is on China, the country most important to the $22 billion worldwide fur trade. A survey of 400 high-income Chinese residents, predominantly Vogue and GQ readers, by Vogue Business and market research group Dynata, shows that demand for fur in China is likely to remain robust for now — but there are some signs of disquiet among a minority of fur buyers.

Just under two-thirds of respondents say they believe that fur is an appropriate material to use for clothing versus 24 per cent that think it is not. Of the group that say fur is an inappropriate material, 62 per cent say they have changed their mind in the last year — and just under half have previously purchased fur products. Objections are not necessarily based on ethical considerations, but also embrace factors such as taste and practicality.

Younger consumers appear to be leading the shift in attitude. “I think that in the Western world there’s a feeling that China is backward [on environmental issues] and that might have been true 20 years ago, maybe even 10 years ago, but right now the younger consumers are really into morality,” says Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of the China Market Research Group, which works with luxury clients including Richemont. Rein says that animal welfare is a growing concern among Chinese consumers. However, fur has been a lower priority target than shark fin or ivory…

The continued support for fur by brands like Louis Vuitton remains important to the fur industry and its image to Chinese buyers, even if sales by luxury brands account for a small share of the overall retail trade in fur. Rein says he is doubtful that luxury consumers in China would care much whether they are buying real or faux fur, as long as the product is from a name they trust. “They care more about the luxury brand than they do about the actual ingredients,” he says.

More in Vogue Business.

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Why an Indian virtual fitting room has a match in China - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

The Indian startup TryNdBuy has been adopted by the Chinaccelerator, and Shanghai-based managing director William Bao Bean explains why the virtual fitting room has a good chance to succeed in China, he tells at Livemint. Up to now, every virtual fitting room including Amazon and Microsoft, makes the consumer look bad, he explains.

Livemint:

Chinaccelerator MD William Bao Bean explains why he took a chance on the Indian entrepreneur.
“Every virtual fitting room I’ve ever seen makes the consumer look bad. Amazon and Microsoft make the person look like a plastic dummy. The consumer is not going to buy something if she looks bad in it," he says.
He says TryNDBuy’s computer vision solution does a better job of making a 3D virtual avatar that won’t make a consumer cringe while getting a sense of how she will look in a dress. Chinaccelerator is helping the startup with the tough act of business development outside India.
“It’s a B2B (business-to-business) sale, step by step. There’s interest from brands in China and then we just have to navigate Alibaba, which is never an easy thing," he says.

More at Livemint.

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Sustainability: a tough sell to China consumers - Ashley Dudarenok

Ashley Dudarenok

Sustainability might have been high on the agenda of major fashion brands, most consumers in China still not buy into the concept, says marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok at the Jing Daily. But there is hope for the future as brands focus on the young and future consumers.

Jing Daily:

Chinese consumers often face barriers when they attempt to purchase sustainable products. Consumer research from the Chinese fashion media Luxe.co found that 21 percent of shoppers don’t know where to find sustainable fashion, and another 19 percent “do not understand what sustainability means.” Founder of the research platform ChoZan.co, Ashley Galina Dudarenok, explains that “sustainable fashion faces a lot of problems in the Chinese market. It is simply not the first concern when consumers make a purchase.”... 

Swarovski’s Waterschool environmental stewardship initiative has reached over 100 schools and 350,000 students across China, smartly targeting the next generation of China’s young and sustainably-savvy consumer. And according to the experts, it is this generation of young advocates who will be demanding more from brands in the future while also expecting proof of ethical sourcing and manufacturing standards. Galina Dudarenok explains that these consumers will expect sustainability to be a standard feature of brands’ product offerings in the future, claiming that “sustainable luxury does have a future in the Chinese market, and it is with post-90s consumers.” Far from being a passing trend, smart brands ought to be preparing for the eventual emergence of China’s environmentally conscious consumers now rather than when it’s too late.

More at the Jing Daily.

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Western fashion brands fail on China's millennials - Shaun Rein

China's millennials are increasingly defining the country's consumer space, and Western fashion brands fail to appeal to them, says business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China's Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order, to the South China Morning Post. Brands like Marks&Spencer failed because they focused on the middle-class, he says.

The South China Morning Post:

The London-based retailer struggled to make a mark in China’s high-street fashion scene, despite a growing retail market in China and a fondness from consumers towards many other traditional British brands. 

“One of their problems is they tried to sell to a middle-class consumer by creating middle-class brand positioning,” says Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research and author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order. “Most brands that do that in China fail.” 

Marks&Spencer failed to cater to consumer tastes by offering styles that were too “middle class, suburban, UK housewife”, Rein says. Sizes for Asian body types were also not considered. Meanwhile, at locations such as Marks & Spencer’s brick and mortar stores in Beijing and Shanghai, Chinese consumers could go right next door to H&M to shop the youthful and more on-trend styles that reflect one of China’s biggest emerging markets: millennials. 

Another problem for Marks & Spencer is how Chinese shoppers perceive value. Rein says Chinese consumer behaviour is defined by what he calls the “CMR Hour Glass Shopping Model”, meaning they shop both at the top and the bottom of the spending scale. 

“Anything that’s not great value – it doesn’t give them prestige, it doesn’t give them status, it’s not an aspiration – is something that Chinese don’t want unless it’s dirt cheap,” he says. “So they’ll go out and buy very expensive lipstick but they’ll buy the cheapest garbage bags because they don’t want to spend money on garbage bags. 

“Things in the middle like Marks & Spencer or Macy’s just sort of die because their products are not cheap, but they’re not good enough value either.”... 

Macy’s, meanwhile, is still in China in a partnership to sell through Tmall that started in 2015, even though it has been struggling with brand positioning and product assortment and had to cut short its first attempt at launching an online point of sale in 2012. 

“It is a great retailer in the US, but the name had no resonance here,” Rein says of Macy’s. “And it was selling Ralph Lauren – but you can buy Ralph Lauren directly here, either online or in stores, so what’s the point of going to Macy’s for Ralph Lauren?”

Marketing and advertising are also critical for a company’s long-term success, Rein says, and he thinks many brands can do a lot better. 

“They go to the same five celebrities too often,” he says. “They all go to Jackie Chan, to Zhang Ziyi, to Angelababy, so the problem is you have these guys that are representing 10 or 20 different companies, but consumers don’t know who they’re representing any more. They might affiliate them with one brand and one brand only.”

More at the South China Morning Post.

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Fashion brands: After rising wages, robots move in - Ben Cavender

Fashion has been changing massively, as low-cost manufacturing moved from China to other countries, and the fashion brand focus on value, more than on cheap production, tells Shanghai-based retail expert Ben Cavender in Just-Style. And the transition process in fashion brands will continue to cause pain, as robots move in.

Just-Style:

Last year, China's government launched its 'Made in China 2025' programme, aimed at advancing restructuring of the manufacturing sector, upgrading China from a manufacturer of quantity to one of quality, and investing in high-tech sectors and projects like advanced robotics. 

"One thing China is good at doing is making plans for the future," Cavender says. "The whole point of the 2025 programme is 'how do we become the Industry 4.0 leader?' What we're seeing now is massive investment in Chinese start-up companies that are trying to build more efficient robots, building smart factories, looking at big data and analytics, and using it in ways that are effective in the workplace. A Chinese company is right now trying to buy the largest robotics manufacturer in Germany." 

But for all this investment and development, Cavender points out that "tens of thousands" of Chinese manufacturers will go out of business due to the inefficiency of their factories. They are also only just starting to fully realise the value of protecting their intellectual property (IP). 

He adds: "Chinese companies know they need to spend on research and development, and they are spending but still at a relatively low level. The apparel sector [spend] is still less than 1% of revenue. They are also not terribly efficient with how they use their findings. They don't know how to work their supply chain or processes very well. 

"They know there is this need for responsive, faster design, but the reality is nobody knows how to collect data and use it properly. So there is still an opportunity here that if you can do that well and take the time to find the partners that know how to do that, you've already got a leg up on the competition." 

The key to companies capitalising on these weaknesses over the next 15 years, Cavender says, is to be flexible, and invest now. 

"If you're not trying things with automation and robotics now then it's going to be too late. You have to be willing to change and try new things. The biggest reason why the Chinese apparel industry stays healthy is that they're willing to try new things, they're always experimenting." 

He also points to the importance of analysing data from customers, and subsequently building an identity of the customer and knowing what they want. "It's not really truly about technology at the end of the day, it's about teamwork, working together and finding ways to avoid brain drain. You need to find a way to keep those people and get the best out of them.

More in Just-Style.

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How M&S got it wrong in China - Paul French

Paul French

Fashion retailer M&S got it all wrong in China as they focused on non-exciting customers, says retail analyst Paul French to Bloomberg. M&S decided to close down some of its China operation to cut their losses, after a very ambitious start in 2008 in Shanghai.

Bloomberg:

Marks & Spencer opened its first Chinese store in Shanghai in 2008 under then-CEO Stuart Rose. Last year, Rose’s successor Marc Bolland closed five smaller regional stores and focused the company’s efforts on Shanghai. M&S currently has ten stores in China, according to its website. It also sells products through Chinese e-commerce sites TMall.com and JD.com. 

“M&S have gotten everything wrong in China,” said Paul French, an independent consultant to western brands in China. “Their U.K. customer base doesn’t really exist there. It’s a more aspirational culture and Britain’s high-end brands have fared better.”

More in Bloomberg.

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Fashion brands: caught between global and local aspirations - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Western fashion brands have a hard time succeeding in China. Getting local was the old mantra, but as globetrotting Chinese find a difference between localized products and their global appeal, they also have a problem, says branding expert Shaun Rein to Reuters.

Reuters:

H&M is opening more stores in China this year than anywhere else in the world and the country is already the second biggest market for Inditex outside Spain. 

China is a big draw for retailers who hope to tap the aspirations of a fast-growing middle class, with mid-range names benefiting as consumers trade down from luxury brands since Beijing's clampdown on corruption and conspicuous spending. 

But recent history offers plenty of examples of failure. Western brands that have struggled in China include Gap Inc , Abercrombie & Fitch and Marks and Spencer , which decided last year to close five stores in smaller cities to focus on flagship stores in large cities and online. 

"Most of the Western fashion labels that are mid-range fail in China. A large part of it is that the styles and the fit are so completely different," said Shaun Rein, founder of market intelligence firm China Market Research... 

Rein of China Market Research says Western brands must strike a delicate balance. "You have to keep your global brand image and you can't be that creatively different in China than other markets. The Chinese travel around the world," he said. "It is good to localise. But it hard to localise an aspiration."

More in Reuters.

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The consolidation of China´s fashion labels - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender

The world looked with surprise when Nanjing dress-maker V-Grass Fashion bought South-Korean Teenie Weenie for double its own market value. But moving ahead in such a drastic way, seems to be the only way forward for China´s fragmented apparel market, tells retail analyst Ben Cavender to Bloomberg.

Bloomberg:

In China’s competitive apparel market, the top two companies - Heilan Home Co. and Fast Retailing Co.’s Uniqlo brand - had 1.2 per cent and 1 per cent market share respectively in 2015, according to researcher Euromonitor International. 

“The apparel space here needs to consolidate, and the winners going forward are companies with the right systems in place, such as inventory management, the right locations,” said Ben Cavender, a China Market Research Group analyst. “Teenie Weenie is in a good position as it targets the younger casual fashion consumer base.” 

In the past year, V-Grass has shut a third of its boutiques located in third and fourth-tier Chinese cities, and in lower-end malls in bigger cities, Tao said. While those outlets had been profitable, the company wants to presence to establish itself in high-end locations in the biggest cities.

More at Bloomberg.

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Chinese fashion brands go deep to purchase foreign names - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender

South Korea’s E-Land Group sold clothing label Teenie Weenie to Chinese fashion house V-Grass Fashion Co. in a 1 trillion won deal (US$900 million). That is more than V-Grass is worth, warns branding expert Ben Cavender in Bloomberg, and might be very hard to recover in sales.

Bloomberg:

The acquisition, at a price which could outstrip V-Grass’ market capitalization of about $685 million, comes as Chinese middle-class shoppers shift to higher-priced premium purchases. Meanwhile, in Korea, E-Land and other retailers are struggling to attract consumers to stores and malls as more shoppers there spend record amounts making purchases on their mobile devices. 

While the purchase will help V-Grass extend its brand, it will likely take on debt to finance the sale and compete against international labels, said Ben Cavender, a China Market Research Group analyst. 

“The Chinese brands are hunting for new brands to add to their portfolio, so the strategy here for V-Grass is to get a brand that’s targeted at a very different shopper profile from their own,” Cavender said. “They’re paying a ton of money, and Teenie Weenie is in a segment where it’s tough going head-to-head with established fast-fashion brands like Uniqlo and Forever 21.”

More in Bloomberg.

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Affordable fashion gives boost to fast brands - Ben Cavender

+Benjamin Cavender 

High-end brands are no longer the only winners in China´s luxury industry, as affordable fashion gets the favor of consumers, and high-costs items are mostly purchased outside China, explains business analyst Ben Cavender in the China Daily.

The China Daily:

Ben Cavender, an analyst at the China Market Research Group in Shanghai, said the aggressive expansion of fast fashion brands including H&M and Uniqlo is the result of rising interest among Chinese consumers in products that offer style and quality, instead of premium brands in luxury categories. He said the quick expansion of these companies indicates that more fast fashion brands want to make sure they are building relationships with Chinese consumers early on before these shoppers become familiar with too many other competing brands.

"Chinese consumers are more sophisticated and have more understanding of products," he said. The government's austerity campaign has also created an environment that has encouraged consumers to avoid being too flashy and obvious, which has cut into the popularity of luxury brands, Cavender added.

In addition, he said that Chinese consumers still like luxury goods, but most of their purchases are made outside of China because domestic prices are higher for the same items.

Cavender noted the importance for fast fashion retailers of building market share by designing for local customers in terms of fit and style. Designing for China could raise some costs but it makes sense in the long term, he said.

Beyond sprucing up physical stores to attract more customers, online shops can offer a major boost, said Cavender. He said that e-commerce is a boon for regions that don't have as many malls as first-tier cities. It's also ideal for customers who are too busy working to go shopping.

He cited Uniqlo's collaboration with Tmall as an example. Cooperating with Tmall, the leading e-commerce platform of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, often helps fast fashion retailers to increase their sales. "Brands will have more control if they have their own website, but it is difficult to get the same amount of traffic as Tmall," he said.

More in the China Daily.

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"The spirit of the East and the West" - Helen Wang

Helen Wang

Book author Helen Wang got a feature in the Chengdu fashion magazine "Grace", describing her as "the spirit of the East and the West". On her weblog Helen Wang describes her latest success. Helen Wang:

The magazine’s main patrons are modern and trendy Chinese women. I am honored to be in a fashion magazine, but I am even more honored to be named as “The Spirit of the East and West.” In Chinese, the word Jing Ling means “spirit,” but can also mean “wizard,” or “genius.” Last night, I was at KTSF Channel 26, a San Francisco Chinese TV station, filming a segment of “Talk Tonight” show, which will be aired on Monday, Sept. 5th. The host asked me if this title sounded “too cute.” I said no. That’s what I want to be. I hope we can all be the “spirit” or the bridge that connects the East and West.

More on Helen Wang's weblog.

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Why Gap is failing in China - Shaun Rein

Fashion retailer Gap did not gain much traction in its first year in China, writes business analyst Shaun Rein in CNBC. To survive, it needs to adjust its brand image. China defines 'middle class' different from the US.

Shaun Rein:

Gap’s first problem in China is its brand image. It is not positioned as a luxury brand, hence could not demand its share of the $13.6 billion worth of luxury goods sold in 2010. Nor is it seen as a value for money brand by the majority of China’s price sensitive shoppers.

In other words, Gap has fallen into the middle class image trap like many foreign retailers including Marks and Spencer. These retailers tried to target China’s 350 million strong and rising middle class but have surprisingly attempted to evoke the same images and aspirations of America’s middle class. China’s definition of middle class is very different from America’s.

Unlike in America, no one in China views themselves as truly middle class, where they and their offsprings will work in their blue-collar jobs and watch their salaries only marginally beat inflation rates and visit Disneyworld every few years. Instead, everyone believes they or their children are destined to go from rags to riches. After all, just about everyone knows someone or even has a relative who was a farmer 10 years ago and now owns multiple villas and drives a Mercedes. There is a “can do” attitude that is electrifying the country, similar to conditions that gave rise to the baby boomers in post World War II America...

And on the optimistic side:

Gap is by no means facing the trouble that Mattel’s [MAT  27.99   0.50  (+1.82%)  ] Barbie store did (it eventually shut) or American Apparel, [APP  0.91   0.02 (+2.25%)   ] which is having serious problems for creating fashion lines that were far too sexy for the local market in China. Younger Chinese women like cutesy: think Hello Kitty or Snoopy. But in order for Gap to capture what is becoming the must-win market for retailers, it is going to have to consider changing its sales channel strategy and either crafting a new image or introducing brand lines to the marketplace.

More in CNBC.

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'Made in China' tries to become fashionable - Paul French

Paul French

China's fashion brands looked with envy how foreign brands were conquering Chinese consumers, writes Globe and Mail, but they are moving fast to catch up. "We are waiting for China's Zara," says retail analyst Paul French.

The women’s fashion chain is one of a small but growing number of brands that are not only made in China but designed here as well, in an attempt to take on the Western labels that are popular with China’s up-and-coming teens and twentysomethings.

“There’s certainly some [Chinese fashion retailers] having a go at it. That sector of the market is among the fastest growing,” noted Paul French, chief China analyst at retail consultancy Access Asia. “We’re just waiting to see who emerges as China’s Zara,” he added, referring to the Spanish-based global fashion giant.

More in Globe and Mail.

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Cardin seeks Chinese buyer - Shaun Rein

"Right now, Chinese investors are deep-pocketed and they're looking to acquire Western brands that they can bring back to China," Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai, told AFP.

"It's too difficult to build a brand from scratch."

More at AFP.
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