Trousers cluster competition more intense

The trousers cluster dispute has become increasingly fierce. From the glamorous Guangdong women's trousers to the famous Zhengzhou pants in recent years, there are also large industrial clusters such as Zhuzhou, Xiliu and Chongqing. The focusing of women's trousers by various industrial clusters has made the competition in the women's trousers market increasingly fierce.

“The apparel industry has always said that the trouser industry cluster, and China's trousers industry in the development of the cluster is also pushing.” Said Zhang Qian, vice chairman of the China Trousers Entrepreneurs Council and Chairman of Chongqing Tianyi Pants Industry.

In addition to the increasing emphasis on professional competition in the apparel industry, the cluster industry in China's trousers industry is also related to the industry reality that “a single category is difficult to make a strong brand”.

In response, more and more clusters began to use women's trousers as their nuggets to enter the market. But with the development of women's pants clusters, where should the Chinese women's pants look?

Pants struggle "The first cluster of Chinese women's pants must be Guangdong. Even in the past few years there have been many new women's pants clusters, but the status of Guangdong women's pants has not been shaken." Zhang Hao told reporters.

The reason for creating the dominant position of Guangdong women's trousers must first be attributed to the geographical location of Guangzhou.

“As an early-opening city in China, coupled with the proximity to Hong Kong, Guangdong has always been the birthplace of the Chinese fashion trend. This sensitivity to fashion is also transmitted to the products of Guangdong women's trousers.” In Zhang Wei’s view, Guangdong Women's pants have an absolute advantage in terms of fashion.

For this advantage, Li Yang, the general manager of Guangzhou Zhuo Shilong Trousers, was also quite confident. He told reporters: “Guangdong pants have absolute advantages in the design and development of products. Local enterprises in Guangdong are very concerned about the trends in Europe and the United States. The development of products is also in line with international trends. Therefore, compared with other female pants clusters, the degree of fashion of Guangdong women's pants is at least two beats faster than that of Zhengzhou women's pants.”

At the same time, He Rong, secretary-general of China Trousers, sees it is not easy to replicate the Guangdong model elsewhere.

“A large part of the accessories needed for women’s trousers processing are from Guangdong. At the same time, Guangdong’s abundant human resources have made it difficult for other industry clusters to dictate.” He Rong told reporters that Guangdong's perfect industrial chain is also unmatched by other places.

In this regard, Henan women's trousers chose to break through the situation of Baotuan, "China's pants look Zhengzhou," the slogan also shows the determination of Henan to enter the pants market.

“Henan took advantage of the business opportunities of women's pants in 2003. At the time when the nation was in the SARS period and restricted the flow of people, Henan enterprises spent a high salary to retain the local design talents.” He Rong believes that this is the measure for Henan women. The swift advancement of trousers provides a solid backing for talent.

The fact that Henan women's trousers are really famous in the country is in 2005.

In 2005, 12 women's trousers companies in Henan jointly held a press conference in the Great Hall of the People. In the same year, the representative of Henan Pants Company, Meng Shuya, spent 5 million yuan to participate in CHIC (China International Clothing & Accessories Expo).

"If there is no such series of propaganda measures, the slogan of 'Chinese women's pants to see Zhengzhou' is difficult to gain recognition in the industry." He Rong said.

And behind this series of big measures, Henan pants companies rely on local government support.

“The Henan government has developed the women's trousers industry as the sixth pillar industry in the region very early. The government has also given great support to the development of women's trousers companies.” He Rong told reporters in support of Henan pants In addition to the development, the local government approved 70% of the 22 garment associations in the province, and provided a 70% grant to the participating apparel companies. This is hard to imagine elsewhere.

It is to see that the government supports the enormous power generated by the development of the industry and makes other clusters gradually begin to replicate this model. Chongqing is one of the more representative clusters.

“The Chongqing government’s support for the local women's trousers industry in recent years is also very large.” Zhang Jian told reporters that apart from giving enterprises the opportunity to build industrial parks, the government also gives support to companies in terms of tax policies.

As for how Chongqing pants go to the country, the local government plans to promote the influence of Chongqing pants cluster with 5 to 8 dominant brands.

For a rising star Zhuzhou, obviously only rely more on themselves.

"The basic copy of Zhuzhou's pants is still the Guangzhou model. Because it is a rising star, so there is not much 'baggage', innovation is done well, the product is also very fashionable." Zhang Hao said.

In this regard, Li Yang also has deep feelings. “At present, many Zhuzhou enterprises have cooperation with design studios in Guangdong and strive to improve the fashion of the products.”

At the same time, some industry sources stated that Zhuzhou's enterprises are very much looking for weightlifting, and Zhuzhou's pants prices are relatively low, so the volume of goods in the market in recent years is very large. However, the unsustainability of this low-cost model also confuses the future of Zhuzhou's pants.

It is not only the Zhuzhou pants that are plagued by market competition. As more and more clothing companies begin to join the women's trousers market, the future of women's trousers has become a problem that many women's pants clusters must face.

“The single item category of Zhengzhou pants is developing very fast. It is also very popular in the country. But in the expansion of shopping mall channels, we are feeling more and more pressure.” Zhao Yanli, general manager of Zhengzhou Ya Lida pants, told Reporters, at present, the trousers section of many shopping malls continues to shrink. At the same time, as the rents in the primary market continue to increase and the labor costs continue to climb, the single-store profitability of women's trousers brands continues to decline.

At the same time, clothing companies are constantly eroding the market for single-product pants.

"At present, more than 40% of the trousers sales in the Chinese market are controlled by garment companies, and are mostly concentrated on the clothing brands' stores." This is Zhang Jian's view, which is both an opportunity and a challenge for women's trousers companies. "40% of the share also means that there is a lot of room for development in the pants industry. Especially in the past one year, the entire apparel market is in a down phase. In this regard, women's pants companies should strive to develop the first-line market."

In fact, it is not a lack of opportunities for women's trousers companies to change the current situation in which they mainly use franchise agents and take the third and fourth tier markets as their main markets. To enter the first-tier and second-tier markets and expand shopping malls, companies need to continue to deepen the market segmentation, and make great efforts in product development. However, at present, China's women's trousers companies do not far enough.

"The current homogenization of Chinese women's trousers is very serious, and there is insufficient innovation power." Zhang Jian told reporters that women's trousers as a single product category has a lot of limitations to make brand influence. Therefore, many women's pants companies are still taking the lead, and do not pay attention to design R&D investment.

This phenomenon, there are industry veterans told reporters: "The emperors complex of many women's pants clusters in China are very heavy. After making some achievements, they stop to innovate." But for the phenomenon of pants industry, he also It is understood that many companies have their own marketing channels, and these channels and consumer audiences have their own fixed-style product requirements. In this regard, if we have to innovate rashly, it means that the company must shatter its own turnover and may temporarily lose the original consumers. "Painful innovation is risky, which is also a concern for companies in innovation."

However, product transformation is an urgent problem for women's pants companies. After all, in the face of escalating consumer trends, if a single-product pants company does not have a subdivided, accurate product positioning, it will be difficult to find its place in the future market.

The transitional struggle for the development of the single category, Ya Lida realized very early, and also strive to change.

“It is very difficult for single-category products to make influence. Therefore, many companies that start from a single product category eventually turned to serial development.” Zhao Sunli told reporters that these brothers and Jiumuwang enterprises started from trousers. Serialization has become an important outlet for the future development of single-category enterprises.

“Since last fall, we have gradually adjusted our product mix to develop in series.” Zhao Sunli told reporters that in terms of tops, Ya Lida cooperated with South Korean designers and strived to clean up the market after he had enriched the category. obstacle.

However, the development of single-category serialization is not an easy task. How to enrich the category while not losing the original advantage is the first problem the company must face.

“In the positioning of the tops, we use the operating model that targets the original consumers of the trousers as the target audience.” Zhao Sunli said that this mode of operation is precisely to ensure that the company still has its own core competitiveness when developing categories. .

However, not all people are optimistic about the future of serialization. In Li Yang's view, top-loading and bottom-loading may have completely different modes of operation in product design, supply chain, and even terminal channels. By. And, single-item categories are not without their future.

In this regard, Zhang Hao also deeply agreed: "The company has two operating methods when operating the brand, one is large and complete, and the second is small and fine. Single product categories do well, but also have their own living space."

Zhang Hao told reporters that during his previous visit to Europe, he discovered that there are many single-brand stores in Europe. “I saw a shirt shop with more than 200 square meters. There are only men's shirts inside. There are various materials and styles. Therefore, it is not a matter of mode that the individual items are not well-managed, but the company has not achieved a position in product or operation. ."

For the future of Chinese women's trousers, Zhang Xin believes that “clusters and enterprises must be branded throughout the country and must be inseparable from the product innovation spirit of Guangdong enterprises, the brand awareness of Zhengzhou enterprises, and the support of the government in Zhengzhou.”