Pierre Cardin reorganizes the river and mountains to plan a resurrection of the East

- Interpretation of Pierre Cardin's China market strategy

He built his own fashion empire in space-style haute couture, but he never made a fashion release in Paris for ten consecutive years.

He once made his name become the favorite brand of Chinese people, but now the brand even reminds people of "Big Road";

He used the "brand licensing" approach to open up the global market, but also because of the "brand licensing" in China's image depression;

Two years ago, he also wanted to sell all he owned because of "the disillusionment of the fashion industry and the high age", but now he has to reshape the river and unify his brand image in China.

However, for Mr. Pierre Cardin, who is already 83 years old, it is still not known whether this effort will be able to return a few percent of his chances. This is not only his own, but also the task of the entire Pierre Cardin China company.

Unification dominates the world

Lens playback 1: March 25, 2006, Beijing Guandi Temple. Pierre Cardin, who has been quiet for many years, once again performed in China. Mr. Pierre Cardin and his new Chinese chief representative Ms. Fang Fang made a high profile appearance;

Lens Playback II: October 14, 2006, Beijing World Trade Plaza. The Pierre Cardin large-scale fashion show once again appeared. This is also the Pierre Cardin brand 60 years of legendary experience, China's glorious 30 years of commemorative activities.

Lens Playback III: Beijing, Pierre Cardin Company Office. Fang Fang picked up the phone and once again rumors rejected a Chinese company that required the brand to authorize cooperation...

Since March, he has been the chief representative of Pierre Cardin in China and the general manager of a Chinese company. Fang Fang has been busy. In addition to the two fashion press conferences, she spent more time traveling around for businesses familiar with the Chinese market, and sometimes returned to the French headquarters for reporting work and exchanging opinions.

For an "old brand" on the Chinese market, Pierre Cardin would not have had so many new areas of work that she needed to revamp, but she just caught up with a different moment.

In Paris, France, Mr. Pierre Cardin has deeper concerns. Because of the poor management of some of his companies, in addition to the increase in the amount of debt of the Cardan Empire, the brand effect under its name is also declining. According to a study by an authoritative European research marketing agency, from 1999 to 2001, the credibility of the Pierre Cardin brand dropped by 7 percentage points from 62% to 55%. In the Chinese market, this is even more obvious.

International brands are affected by counterfeit and counterfeit products in the Chinese market. Pierre Cardin is not the only one. Brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior are in the same position, but the only difference is that Pierre Cardin is an exit. The "high fashion" brand positioning, close to the "popular" market brand. More importantly, before the design of Pierre Cardin's fashion was almost all domestic agents doing their own in accordance with Pierre Cardin's style, the results of good and bad differences led to the shake of people's trust in the brand.

Therefore, Fang Fang took office at this time, and she added the item “Unifying the image of Pierre Cardin in China” in her work plan. However, the phenomenon of counterfeiting and “famous brands” in Chinese companies is too common. There is no definitive answer as to where to start and how to do it.

Fang Fang said: “I once exhibited at the Nanjing Fashion Festival and there was a counterfeit Pierre Cardin company next to our company. At that time, many local newspapers published pictures of Mr. Pierre Cardin pointing angrily at the counter. But there is no way.We do have a lot of work to do on the Chinese market now, and sometimes we will take legal actions to crack down on fake and shoddy products. But more importantly, we want to ensure that we unify our brand image and put Peel · Cardin's style is maintained."

For Fang Fang, this is a long and difficult process.

Brand Authorization Success or Failure Xiao He

"There is only one thing separated from the price of your product: your brand," said Sculley, the president of Apple Computer. However, such separation cannot easily be achieved.

Perhaps the brand association that people produced for Pierre Cardin 20 years ago represented the consumer demand of that era, so Pierre Cardin is also rapidly developing in China by virtue of its brand authorized agent. According to Fang Fang, at present, China has more than 30 kinds of product categories using the Pierre Cardin brand, but due to the need to “unify the image” in China, it is not intended to cooperate with Chinese companies for authorization.

The French media believed that it was precisely because Pierre Cardin was too commercialized that its brand image began to decline. According to statistics, there are currently 900 agents in the world that produce “Pierre Cardin” brand products. In Vietnam, China, Belarus and other 150 countries and regions around the world, “Pier Cardin Factory” is established. From daily supplies to furniture lighting, more than 800 patented products are branded as “Pier Cardin”.

The brand authorization emphasizes that the bond between the authorized party and the authorized party is the brand, and once the brand extension across the product line appears, it is even more difficult for the brand owner to grasp. However, many times companies can hardly resist the drive of diversification. Pierre Cardin is selling a large number of production and operating licenses to collect fees. Take clothing production as an example. For each license sold, Pierre Cardin will extract 8% to 12% of brand usage fees from the dealer’s turnover.

But on the other hand, such a complex product category can also make consumers feel puzzled. In the event of a failure, the mother brand will inevitably be harmed, and it will be easy to dilute the brand.

Mr. Pierre Cardin himself also knew that he would keep the brand's reputation by selling the brand, so he kept monitoring all over the world at the “Cardin Factory” all the year round; he often organized a gathering of agents and contacted his feelings; Thundering for some products that do not meet the standards. However, Cardin’s stalls are too large and too scattered, and 900 agents will inevitably be impoverished by a small number of people who are of poor quality and are not good at operating.

In spite of this, the huge authorized cooperative network still brought a lot of income to Pierre Cardin. Fang Fang said: "At present, Pierre Cardin's business worldwide is still growing rapidly. In the first half of this year, sales increased by nearly one-third compared with the same period last year. With such confidence, our unity in the Chinese market The image plan can be released."

Perhaps for Mr. Pierre Cardin or Fang Fang, it is not unclear about the problems and challenges in the mode of authorized cooperation and brand extension. The understanding of customers is insufficient and there is no targeted use of technology and expertise. Extending the brand, or having various regrets and deviations in the implementation process, are the factors that cause horizontal gaps between licensed products.

But the question is, how do they look at brands in a fragmented environment? Is the brand an asset or an equity? This may be the first thing that needs to be defined before the "unified image of China" can be carried out.