The great cause has not yet succeeded, and the United States still has to work hard

In less than 20 years, Metersbonwe has developed into a brand with the largest market share in China's casual apparel market. Chairman Zhou Chengjian is even known as "the richest tailor in China". These achievements enough to make people look up. However, does this mean that Metersbonwe has the conditions to become a leader in China's casual clothing industry? If the answer is yes, what is the basis for this argument? If the answer is no? What is the reason behind it?

The pioneer of virtual management

"The transformation of an industry's business model begins with him", such praise is not too much for Metersbonwe. Although it is difficult to say whether Metersbonwe is the first company to adopt a virtual business model in China's apparel industry, the fact that it has achieved success through a virtual business model has indeed had a real impact on the development of the entire industry.

As early as 1994, the newly born Metersbonwe started its OEM and franchise model. In that era when the "production + sales" integrated business model was still the main business model, Smith Barney's "unconventional" was not favored by people, and many people thought it was a "bag company" business model.

However, through this "leather bag company" business model, Smith Barney entrusts the production of products to designated partners for OEM, and the construction of channels adopts the strategy of franchising. What Smith Barney really does itself is brand promotion, product design, procurement of some raw materials, and a small number of directly-operated stores.

In fact, this business model made the most of Smith Barney's limited funds at the time. Some people have calculated that if everything from the production of orders to the opening of stores was done by itself, it would require nearly 300 million funds, while Smith Barney had only a mere 4 million funds at that time.

The successful transformation of the business model has not only influenced the creation of Smith Barney as an enterprise, but the greater value lies in the fact that the entire industry has gained great inspiration from this success. Many apparel companies have begun to follow the footsteps of Metersbonwe. Today, the asset-light virtual business model has become the norm in the apparel industry.

The enterprising spirit exuded at all times

The successful exploration of the industry business model has allowed Metersbonwe to stand on a higher platform from the beginning, and the obvious first-mover advantage has made the development path of Smith Barney relatively smooth. , China's casual wear market share of the first achievement is also affirmation of its unremitting efforts. However, these alone are not enough to make us see Smith Barney as a potential leader in the industry. The size of the company is only one of the factors to consider. The enterprising spirit that always exudes is an important reason why we are willing to place high hopes on it.

In 2008, Smith Barney was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and at the same time, it launched a new brand business field and launched the online sales platform Banggou. In 2011, the theme concept of "I am a new domestic product" was launched, advocating the creative concept of "new domestic product", and advocating the regeneration and inquiry of traditional culture.

The above all reflect that Smith Barney has always maintained a positive and enterprising attitude towards corporate development. Obviously, the successful experience of the company in the past made them realize that only by constantly breaking through and surpassing themselves, can the sustainable development of the company be achieved.

If the above-mentioned enterprise development measures reflect the enterprising spirit of an enterprise from a relatively simple management perspective, then the establishment of the Metersbonwe Costume Museum in 2005 is expressed through corporate culture. Smith Barney wants to build a long-term vision of a century-old brand. In Smith Barney's own words, "If the production and operation of an enterprise is a kind of alchemy, then the construction of a clothing museum as a carrier of corporate culture is a kind of monasticism." It is believed that in today's impetuous era, a private Enterprises can invest huge sums of money to build such a museum that can not bring profits to the enterprise. Behind it, it shows more of the belief and pursuit of creating "Century Metersbonwe".

To become a big company, it still needs to work hard

The pioneer of the industry model, the striving for continuous improvement, the past achievements and the current vitality make people full of expectations for Metersbonwe to become an industry leader. To achieve this brilliance, there are still many problems that need to be solved.

Objectively speaking, Metersbonwe has accumulated considerable brand value through more than ten years of dedicated management. However, the relatively low-end brand image has always restricted the further development of Smith Barney. Therefore, Smith Barney launched in 2008. The "ME&CITY" brand hopes to get rid of the brand image of Smith Barney's "student wear" and realize the extension of the corporate brand from low-end to mid-to-high-end.

However, the market's response was not satisfactory. The "ME&CITY" brand, which had high expectations, failed to achieve the goal of driving the upgrading of the Smith Barney brand. Consumers' old mindset about the Smith Barney brand was largely a drag. The development of "ME&CITY". For Smith Barney, how to not only inherit the positive legacy accumulated over the past ten years in the process of rebranding, but also get rid of consumers' low-end impression of this brand, in the future, this will be a great challenge for the United States. A question that Tesbonwe cannot avoid.

With the launch and development of the "ME&CITY" brand, Smith Barney's business model in recent years has also attracted industry attention. Contrary to the previous franchise business model, the stores of "ME&CITY" are almost all directly-operated stores. On the one hand, it can be seen that the group attaches great importance to this brand, and on the other hand, these signs also show that Smith Barney is imitating the international chain brands represented by ZRAR and taking the road of "fast fashion".

However, this transition is not destined to be smooth sailing. On the one hand, Smith Barney is known for being good at asset-light management, but now it has to significantly increase the proportion of self-operated stores. Can the enterprise management operation system quickly adapt to this change? This will largely determine the success or failure of this change. On the other hand, the "fast fashion" model represented by ZARA requires companies to have a complete set of supply chain systems that can adapt to it. Whether the higher requirements can finally be realized, we can only wait and see.

From the imitation of ZARA and other international brands, we can also see that Smith Barney has higher expectations for itself, and becoming a world-class brand is its ultimate goal—this is in line with our expectations for industry leaders. standard. However, the realization of this goal is not easy, and it requires the reform of the enterprise management system, the adjustment of the operation mode, and the reconstruction of the brand image. In addition, a point to be mentioned here is how to not lose yourself when aligning with world-class brands? How to absorb the essence and use it for me, instead of improvising and learning to walk in Handan. For Smith Barney, every step it takes now counts.

"Metersbonwe, don't take the usual path", a company that wants to become an industry leader must walk ahead of others, which also means that he must give up those usual paths and instead explore new ones path of. After more than ten years of hard work, Smith Barney has achieved outstanding results, but they still need to work hard to reach the heights of industry leaders.

Interactive questions:

1. In order to improve the brand level, what kind of homework does Smith Barney need to do?

2. What is the biggest gap between Smith Barney and those world-class brands?