Xu Bo, General Manager of Balabala Children's Wear: There is no shortcut to multi-brand development

As a successful case of multi-brand operation was interpreted by frequent businesses, the success of Balla Bara once again caused the industry to think about the development of multi-brands. Is copying the past successful experience a convenient way for multi-brand development? Xu Bo, general manager of Balabala believes that not to fall into the trap of multi-brand development, to replicate the past successful experience to do a new brand, the positioning of the disorder will occur.

The Wenzhou leisure brand Semir created a successful children's wear brand, Balabala, in 9 years, and with the successful listing of the Summa clothing in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in March 2011, when a successful case of a multi-brand operation was frequently read by business people, Bara Bala’s Success once again caused the industry to ponder over the development of multi-brands. Is copying past successful experience a convenient way for multi-brand development? Xu Bo, general manager of Balabala believes that not to fall into the trap of multi-brand development, to replicate the past successful experience to do a new brand, the positioning of the disorder will occur.

Data from 2010 shows that in the market share of 100 billion children's wear, Balabala’s market share is at the forefront. Balabala successfully proved to the world that children’s wear can also make a big career. Recent research data from the financial industry predicts that Semir will be the best investment target for children's wear in A-shares, and its Balabala is the industry leader. With its leading position in brands and channels, it is expected to maintain a 30% to 50% compound growth.

In 2002, Xiao He’s sharp-edged children’s wear market attracted the attention of Chairman Qiu Guanghe. In that year, Semir carried out the first brand extension—Bala Bara, the main brand of children’s clothing, and its target customer group was focused on fashion and quality. The well-to-do and middle-class families, the product line covers 3-12 years old children, children's clothing and children's shoes and other categories. Senma has thus become one of the few garment companies in China that has established a multi-brand operation platform. Taking into account the differences in casual wear and children's wear, Semir operates the Suma and Balabala brands with two divisions, and Xu Bo is appointed as the general manager to operate the Balabala brand.

Under the operation of Xu Bo, Balabala has developed rapidly. In less than two years, it has generated over 100 million yuan of output value; in 2005, the sales exceeded 300 million yuan; in 2007, it was again named "China Top Brand Product" and "China Top Ten." "Children's clothing brand"; 2011 was also identified as "China's well-known trademarks." Today, Balabala is already sitting in the top spot of local children's wear brands.

Balabala created the wonders of children's clothing development. Its success has led many companies to start the Nuggets children's wear market. In Barabara's hometown Zhejiang alone, beverage giant Wahaha launched Wahaha Kidswear, Metersbonwe's ME&CITY Big Push Kids series, and leather shoes. Giant Cornell launched three points of water children's wear, leisure clothing brand created a tree Bai Lide ... ..., in the national apparel market, adult shoes and apparel companies involved in the children's clothing market, there are numerous cases. The reason is that in addition to the huge potential of the children's wear market to attract a group of companies, the case of Senma's involvement in children's wear and the creation of a successful children's wear brand such as Balla Balla for 9 years seems to play a role as a wind vane.

Undoubtedly, Balabala's success has a huge relationship with Senma's excellent mother platform. Xu Bo from the Senma brand out of the beginning of the Balala Bala brand, they learned from the successful virtual business model of the Senma casual wear, the company focused on design and development, marketing, brand building, production is commissioned processing. Balla Balla has thus become the first child wear brand to adopt a virtual business model. However, children's clothing has its own set of operating rules and market rules. At this point, Xu Bo has a deep understanding, from adult casual wear to children's clothing, many ways need to be explored alone.

Unique temperament can be a different brand. From the very beginning, Xu Bo has explored a differentiated road for Balabara. It differentiates itself from traditional children's wear brands in terms of channels, products and promotion.

In terms of channels, Balabala took a store channel where children's wear brands did not go, and even opened community stores and shop-in-shops. Xu Bo believes that considering the convenience of consumers in channel construction is the most important factor. With the increase in consumers’ purchasing power, clothing can be opened like a convenience store. In addition to opening counters in shopping malls, stores have sufficient flexibility and flexibility. Degree of freedom.

“Children also have diverse needs, and they must respect their children's individual choices.” When many children's clothing brand products are still circling around cartoon designs, Balabala’s clothing has the taste of an adult, simple, comfortable and international. In terms of price, children's clothing prices are polarized, either at the mall or at a high price, or they are selling on the street. The low price does not guarantee quality. Balabala has followed the popular pricing route. Based on the above differentiated operations, it can be seen that Xu Bo is aiming at the needs of a middle-high purchasing power class, that is, the needs of the middle class. They need a quality brand, taste, fashion, and a reasonably priced popular brand.

“As a rising star, we must solve the positioning problem and take a very clear line of differentiation to shape the brand.” Differentiation is the brand development password that Xu Bo has repeatedly emphasized. Internationalization is an important manifestation of Balabala’s difference from other children’s wear in the country. Balabala’s international brand image meets the increasing internationalization of brand requirements for consumers, integrating world-class resources from product design, store fashion design, and brand communication. The international image also made Barablan stand out from many domestic brands.

Q: Reporter A: Xu Bo Q: How to look at the potential of the children's wear market?

A: The breadth of the Chinese market can support 5 billion, 10 billion annual output value of clothing enterprises, children's clothing brands should put themselves in the entire apparel market, and other clothing categories in a market competition. A single store in an adult outfit can sell 3 or 4 million a month. Why can't children wear? Children's clothing will definitely be like an adult outfit, with an outstanding brand and a company that has a sales volume of 10 billion.

Q: In the face of such a large market potential, what adjustments need to be made by domestic brands to keep up with changes in the market?

A: Domestic brands need to devote more energy to studying the changing needs of consumers, to better understand consumers, and to think about brand positioning on the basis of this; it is also necessary to improve the construction of terminal stores. In the early days when many production-oriented enterprises transformed themselves into children's wear brands, it was necessary to translate the advantage of production scale into the advantage of producing added value. It was necessary to learn the lean management experience of international brands. For example, international brands had a very fine category management and a clear age. Positioning, layout, and size breakdown, and international brands are very good at resource integration, internationalization of procurement, supply chain integration, etc.

Q: Do you think that it is imperative for brands to "grasp the changing needs of consumers and use them as a basis for thinking and positioning." What are the current needs of children?

A: Children need to be understood and respected. Parents should not imprison their children and increase their life experience. This is also the starting point for the new shop in Balala Bala as a "children's paradise for exploration."

Q: The success of Balla Barra has given many people the opportunity to see the children's wear market. Many adult clothing brands have started to make children's clothes. How do you see this problem?

A: The success of multi-branding is not easy. Many people think that it is easy to succeed by taking over past successes. Actually, this is a trap. The creation of a new brand must address the issues of culture and positioning. Based on the positioning, we must consider what can be shared and what cannot be shared. Otherwise, we will locate the disorder. Balabala has a clear position from the very beginning and takes a differentiated development path based on this, rather than considering what resources to share from the very beginning. How to make a profit for a brand is the key. Only the exploration of a continuous, optimized and sustainable profitable model is the key.

Q: After the listing, Balabara plans at the operational level?

A: In terms of brand building, it will increase investment, spend effort to study consumer demand, integrate more abundant communication resources and communicate with consumers; through the implementation of fundraising projects, you can purchase core business district store resources to further expand and enhance channels. Controlling power; investment in information projects has strengthened the ability of rapid distribution of logistics, information management and transmission, and will help improve the overall competitiveness of enterprises; the second is the establishment of talents, especially core talents in R&D and design. Cultivate and introduce.