Meibang: The Youth Of A Generation Cannot Be Reproduced

"Youth is like a running river, never coming back, there is no time to say goodbye.", Ten years ago, in high school, a group of young people were sitting around the dark classroom watching the film. The tears from their eyes were the memory of the middle-aged people who had lost their youth in the film.

Today's Metersbonwe is declining, perhaps because she can no longer read the youth of a generation.

Mets Bonwe is a domestic leisure clothing brand founded by Zhou Chengjian in 1995. Its target customers are young people aged 16-25 who are "full of vitality". According to the age of consumers at the time of Meibang's development, the earliest audience should be the post-80s generation.

The youth of post-80s coincides with the rapid expansion of Meibang. In 2001, there were more than 500 Meibang chain stores with sales of more than 500 million yuan. In 2003, Meibang changed its original image spokesperson from Guo Fucheng, one of the four heavenly kings, to Jay Chou, who sang "love before the Western yuan" and played "nunchakus". Many years later, after the release of Zhou Tianwang's new song, it can still become the love of young people nowadays. However, Meibang's "energetic" clothing is hard to attract the attention of the new generation of consumers.

In February this year, Meibang closed its store on Yanqing Road, which has been in operation for more than 20 years, and is known as the "intersection of youth" of Hangzhou people. Passers-by said, "things are different, everything is resting", but with a little irony.  

In March, Meibang announced that it would sell 100% of the equity of Shanghai Mogong Industrial Co., Ltd. jointly held with its subsidiary, with a planned sale amount of 448 million yuan. The sale involves the property of the headquarters. Therefore, Meibang's representative clothing museum was forced to close and relocate after 15 years of opening. In the documentary "a tidal letter" released by Meibang in September last year, eight Street brand managers enter the Meibang clothing Museum, trying to find some creative elements for brand creation.

In the construction of brand image, Meibang is not unchangeable. In addition to Metersbonwe, in 2008, Meibang successively launched me & City, moomoo, michidi and other clothing brands. For me & City, Meibang Meiqi called "to provide a new life experience for the new middle class", which is undoubtedly "high does not make low, which is contrary to the original business philosophy“ "New middle class" stands for "relatively high consumption", which is the embodiment of a more refined life. Obviously, the quality of Meibang's products is not up to such a standard. If we really raise the standard, it will inevitably correspond to the rise of product price, which is against the original intention of Meibang. Children's wear brands, not to mention how Meibang, which started as a "16-25-year-old" group of clothing, can compete with Balabala's brand of children's clothing.

If we say that the unpopular brand building can not be seen as a big strategic error, around 2014, Meibang and Zexi fund founder Xu Xiang jointly manipulated the stock price of Meibang, which brought a series of domino effects to Meibang. In 2015, after Xu Xiang was jailed, Zhou Chengjian assisted in the investigation, and Meibang was forced to be taken over by Hu Jiajia, Zhou Chengjian's daughter, and became a family business directly. This undoubtedly exacerbated the turbulence of the virtual business system that accompanied the growth of Meibang. However, Zhou Chengjian and others increasingly exposed the problem of manipulating the stock price and seeking to maximize their own interests, which directly led to the decline of Meibang's product quality. At this time, UNIQLO, Zara, H & M and other international ready-made clothing brands with Europe and the United States as the basic market have basically completed their own rise, and their domestic market share is expanding. Improper brand segmentation strategy, wrong operation of capital market, and Meibang's self-help is only "temporary treatment rather than radical cure", which is difficult to win the hearts of the current youth.

In contrast, bosden, a Chinese brand also closely related to sewing machines, has experienced ups and downs for more than 40 years, and finally became the first Chinese brand to land in Milan International Fashion Week in 2019. In an exclusive interview with Xinhua on May 12, Gao Dekang, President of bosden International Holding Co., Ltd., said that bosden will continue to focus on its main business and strive to become one of the world's first-line brands.

The youth of a generation can't be re engraved, and clothing brands should not be the lambs confined by capital. Only by recognizing the fashion needs of young people can we really turn the tide. As a post-95 who once bought Meibang clothes, she also hopes to look back on her youth years later and find that she is in the dim light, safe and quiet.
By Tang Yuxin
Information source: New Weekly China Fortune network entrepreneur "a tidal letter"