Brands such as Midland Youngor fall in love with the "direct" sales model

Adidas Shamrock brand, returning the right to operate, opened a large number of direct-operated stores.

Metersbonwe spent a total of 517 million yuan in the national enclosure in the first half of the year and opened a large number of direct-operated stores.

Youngor, the original 3000 stores were compressed to 2,000, and increase the proportion of direct sales stores.

Steve & Vivian, officially operating for less than two years, has opened nearly 20 direct-operated stores in first and second-tier cities nationwide.

Direct operation, direct operation. Is it the franchise distribution model that is popular in the entire apparel industry that really needs an era of change?

Direct branding is part of development

Opinion: As production continues to expand and chains continue to increase, the burden and costs of brands in logistics, capital flow, and information flow are increasing. At the same time, as the brand strategy continues to follow, the cultivation of products and awareness requires more efforts by the brand. Therefore, “Direct Marketing” is a wonderful move to train the brand.

The brand’s regaining of the right to operate is a deliberate consideration. Many brand owners have said that direct marketing is a necessary stage for brand development. At different times, brands will adopt different business models to deal with different stages of development. The emergence of “direct operations” now is a trend, not something that certain brands “deliberately do.”

The brands have expressed that brand companies have encountered more problems as the brand continues to grow and businesses continue to expand. The lack of information is particularly evident. Brands often do not understand the information of their own shops. This directly leads to lagging information in logistics, capital flow, inventory, sales, etc., which increases the cost of the brand. The “most worry-free” aspect of adopting the direct-operated store model is that through the information department of the company's marketing center, it can quickly grasp the real-time data of terminal sales feedback and make rapid response to the deployment of goods, so that the status of single store operations is “controllable and Transparent". This can minimize unnecessary input and control costs.

At the same time, many brands also stated that direct sales can reduce many problems in terms of promotional activities. Taking inventory control as an example, if a product launched by a brand is not accepted by the market, it will carry out promotional activities to speed up the sales ratio. However, through agents, brands often have to take into account their gross margin, and they can't just do promotional activities. This can easily cause an inventory overstock.

In addition, from the perspective of “cultivating the brand”, brand companies still prefer the direct model. Some brands said that their children love their own after all. This is not to say that distributors and agents do not care, but it is nature to love their children. Distributors and agents often represent many brands at the same time. It is not realistic to want them to pay special attention to a particular brand. In addition, some very few agents are engaged in grass-roots operation mode, which makes the sale price and positioning of products seriously out of touch, which affects the overall sales and visibility of the brand.

Another phenomenon worth noting is that not only "mature type" brands are operating in large quantities, but many "growth type" brands have also joined the tide of "direct operation." In this regard, many people do not understand that direct operation is not to be backed by considerable strength to do it? Why are some "growth" brands doing direct operations? In fact, this is not difficult to explain, any brand needs to be raised, brand owners have patience, etc. Agents may not be able to wait for you for three years. Therefore, for the early stage of brand nurturing, the direct mode is the safest and most responsible practice.

Changes in agency model to promote internal development

Opinion: In the face of the ever-increasing "direct" storm, dealers and agents have also felt pressure. How can we be invincible in today's channel change? On the one hand, dealers must grasp the relevant terms of the agreement at the beginning of cooperation with the brand; on the other hand, it is to constantly improve their own strength. After all, we must control our destiny in our own hands.

Faced with the ever-increasing "direct" storm, some agents said that it was more terrible than the "financial" storm. Because even in the "financial" crisis, the market still has demand. As long as there is demand, dealers can sell goods. However, today's "direct operation" seems to have cut off the source of "supply." No "supply", let dealers take what to sell it?

This kind of consideration is not unreasonable, because the total supply of the market is certain, and the intervention of one party will lead to the emergence of "negative growth." However, it should be noted that brands and distributors do not necessarily have to be "competitive" relationships. "Complementary" is the basis for a win-win situation. Many brands stated that they hope to cooperate with some of the more powerful distributors when the time is ripe.

Chen Chuan, general manager of the LILY brand under the Shanghai Silk Group Brand Development Co., Ltd., believes: “The power of agents will become stronger and stronger, and they will become more and more professional. China’s domestic sales market is huge and regional differences are large. Brand owners must learn Cooperation with agents."

From LILY's appearances, out of more than 200 LILY stores in the country, direct sales accounted for only one-third, while the performance contribution rate reached more than half. Despite this, Chen Chuan does not think that this is enough to show that the role of agents will fade out in the future; instead, he believes that in the early days of brand development, brand owners must set aside time to look at the “business motivation” of agents. With the maturity of the brand, it will inevitably drive the agents to keep abreast of the essence. “More agents will certainly be the best.” Chen Chuan even predicted that in the near future, China's garment industry will have a more oligopolistic, more powerful, and more comprehensive national agent. As long as these agents have oligarchs, the agency model will not Will be "marginalized."

From this, it can be seen that dealers want to stand firm in the “brand direct era” and that “small wealth is safe” is a must. The key lies in improving their own strength and becoming the oligarch of agents in the eyes of brands.

Of course, dealers should also pay attention to the dynamics of the market and the industry while working hard to prevent the death of rabbits. Although such situations are rare in today's "channel is king", it is necessary to be prepared to deal with all possible problems.

The eye of the reporter

Brands, distributors, and agents are inseparable from the very beginning. The complementary combination of the two is the prerequisite for the mutual development of both parties. "Direct brand operation" is actually a stage of socio-economic development. In this stage, whether it is a brand or a channel, it is not an issue of confrontation but a development issue. Here, in addition to maintaining its own market share, dealers should also pay attention to exploring new development models and improve their own strengths to ensure that they can obtain respect and wealth in development.