Calvin Klein, Levi's Jeans and other European and American tide brands in China

Leading Word: This year, even Chaozhou people may be overwhelmed by various new brands in the mall. Giant posters bearing the giant "Coming Soon" fill the city's fashionable colony. These brands that were originally detoured in China are now rushing to land, whether they are stumbling or walking.

Tide brand surging gold China

In order to offset the impact of deceleration in the growth of European and American markets, these fashion- or fashion-known brands are expanding the battlefield. The show has only just begun.

The world's fourth-largest clothing group PVH (Philips-Van-Heusen) was just an obscure brand of men's dress shirts. However, the acquisition of the Calvin Klein underwear brand in 2002 immediately added dynamism to the dreary brand image. It is precisely because of this acquisition that PVH has found its way to the world - instead of diligently making its own brand, it is not as quick and effective as acquiring existing brands.

New York-based PVH currently owns Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, IZOD, Heusen, Bass, Jimlar, Arrow and other brands, and has acquired sales rights for DKNY, Michael Kors Collection, Geoffrey Beene, Kenneth Cole, John Henry and other private brands.

In March 2010, PVH acquired Tommy Hilfiger for a bid of US$3 billion, and CEO Emanuel Chirico unabashedly expressed his hope to use Tommy Hilfiger to advance global expansion faster. With a red, white and blue logo, a classic American brand known for its Polo shirts and loose jeans, 2/3 of the company's business is from Europe, which also makes PVH particularly optimistic about the ability of Tommy Hilfiger's overseas expansion.

Of course, their ambition is not just in Europe.

In August of this year, Tommy Hilfiger hired John Ermatinger as the first chief executive in Asia. This person once worked for Levie's and later entered the Nike Group. He joined Gap in 2006 and became President of Asia Pacific, successfully helping Gap to enter the Chinese market.

“Asia is our main future market. Under the leadership of experienced executives such as John Ermatinger, we will gain greater market share in Asia.” Tommy Hilfiger CEO Fred Gehring is confident. In addition to the newly-introduced John Ermatinger, Tommy Hilfiger arranged the Chinese team led by Shen Wenfeng as early as last March. The latter had served as general manager of ESPRIT China, and now has great expectations from Fred Gehring.

Tommy Hilfiger's sales in Asia are about 500 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 10% of its global revenue. They have more than 400 stores in Asia, of which 112 are in Japan and 80 are in China. They hope to increase the proportion of Asian sales from 10% to 3/1 in the future, and China is undoubtedly the biggest engine in Taiwan. To this end, they have also recovered the dealership rights that they have maintained in China for 15 years.

Tommy Hilfiger is not a big fan of China's big department stores. “We believe that the regionalization of the services provided in this area is becoming more and more obvious. We can no longer regard Europe and the United States as major markets, and other regions as secondary or secondary markets. We are concentrating our efforts on providing services to Asia. More efficient, more targeted planning. We will adopt more localized sales methods,” Fred Gehring said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He also said that he will not make any changes to the brand. John Ermatinger, the new Asia regional chief executive, also believes that Tommy Hilfiger's relaxed core brand DNA is particularly appealing to young Asians.

The reality may not look so optimistic. Compared to 90% of brand awareness in Europe, this figure is only 60% in China. It seems that a large-scale shop can at least make the brand deeply rooted.

As a brand purchased by PVH as early as 1995, although it has come late to China, its strength is not inferior. It is the second largest male fashion casual brand in the United States with more than 10,000 sales outlets in the United States and retail sales of approximately $900 million. In October 2010, it was personally operated by Michael L. Kelly, Executive Vice President of Marketing of PVH Group, officially announced that it had entered China in November and planned to open 3,000 stores in China in the next five years.

Tommy Hilfiger calls himself an affordable luxury. “The development of luxury goods is getting hotter and the market is a bit crowded. We definitely want to develop this market in China. Our products are not popular products, but they are of excellent quality. Although the prices are slightly expensive, they have not yet reached the level of luxury goods. "Fred Gehring said. IZOD's argument is that high-end, low-cost sportswear and casual wear, with moderate prices and good fabrics, are positioning themselves for their expansion in China's second-tier and third-tier markets.

There is more than just PVH for China.

Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) is also rushing to bring the second-hand Hollister to China, for fear of missing this express train. But in the past two years, the company has been cautious about the Chinese market - although in all wholesale markets in China, A&F and its sub-brands have always been best-selling brands.

Hollister aimed at the younger boys and girls market, known as Southern California beach-style clothing, the use of materials relatively cheaper than A & F, it is adolescent favorite. Hollister has thus become a gold medal for A&F. Since 2006, Hollister has more than 500 stores worldwide.

CEO Michael Jeffries gave a rhetoric: There is no unsuccessful Hollister store in the world.

In 2009, A&F installed the fifth flagship store in the world and the first flagship store in Asia in Japan. Located in Ginza, Tokyo, it has 12 floors. Unfortunately, they made a mistake.

When Jeffries summed up the failure of Japanese stores, the cause was attributed to the economic downturn and the social structure of aging. Young people paid too much attention to those fast fashion brands. He firmly believes that Japan cannot represent Asia and China is the next goal.

According to the plan, A&F will open 40 Hollister stores and 5 A&F flagship stores worldwide this year. Hong Kong's first Hollister has opened on August 18. The opening hours of A&F stores have also been finalized, and they have even squeezed out the high price of Shanghai Tang, the home of the Pedder Building. The first Hollister in Mainland China has also been located at 353 Plaza Nanjing Road, Shanghai, next to MANGO and Gap. The person in charge of the marketing department of the mall stated that all matters concerning the opening of the store must be directly controlled by the A&F headquarters.

More than that.

Girl killer brand Forever21 also came. This brand of sweet route is considered to be one of the lowest-priced brands in the US market, lower than Zara, H&M. They already have more than 400 chain stores in the United States, ranking the top five sales in the United States and exporting more than 10 billion each year in China. After the defeat of the first store in Changshu, the decision was made to let go. In June last year, the brand announced that it would open a flagship store in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, and it would occupy a total of six floors. The rent it allegedly paid doubled from the original owner, Giordano. The first flagship store in China has also been selected for the Bund shop on Nanjing Road in Shanghai. It will also occupy four floors in its planning and will be launched along with the overall renovation of the Bund outlets.