The shoemaking industry in Tianjin has a long history. A hundred years ago, the commercial street was crowded with "sand boats" dealing in leather shoes, "Jin Jiuxia" dealing in satin shoes and "pull back" dealing in rubber shoes. It is difficult to find traces of these enterprises, and most of the once brilliant shoes have faded out of the historical stage.
And "Old Plum Blossom", a special shoe store specializing in foot-binding women's football "Three-inch Golden Lotus", has gone through several historical stages such as entrepreneurship, development, atrophy and redevelopment after abolishing the feudal foot-binding system.
Strategy: development and expansion are one step ahead.
Older Tianjin people basically know that old plum blossoms are famous for their special shoes such as wrapped shoes. Until the 1990s, Old Plum Blossom has been receiving customers from the south to the north in a 25-square-meter "one building" in Nanshikou, Tianjin, its birthplace (No.74 Heping Road, Nanshikou). Due to the demolition and reconstruction of the old heather area, Lao Meihua has always wanted to take this opportunity to seek new development space.
"In 2000, Lao Meihua went out from a 25-square-meter salesroom in Heather to five direct stores in the city. There are 70 stores, specialty stores and chain agents in the country, covering an area of more than 600 square meters." Fang Shuying, the chairman of Laomeihua Shoes Co., Ltd., talked about the development of Laomeihua with great emotion.
No one in the staff will forget the hardships paid by the enterprise in taking the first step of expansion. Wang Jiemin, the witness of enterprise development and director of the office of Old Meihua Shoes and Clothing Co., Ltd., recalled, "In 2000, after the news that Heping Road was going to expand the commercial pedestrian street came out, the shareholders of Old Meihua foresaw the opportunity, so they wrote to the competent authorities eight times and applied to the city leaders many times. With the strong support of the government, they finally put down the 270-square-meter' gold' store at Heping Road 192. "
A year later, Lao Meihua bought a 44-square-meter storefront at No.207 Heping Road, between Zhengxingde and Hendry. Then I bought a 225-square-meter storefront at Heping Road 198, which is now located in Jinjie. After the renovation of Guwen Street, Americans once again saw the opportunity and rented a 26-square-meter storefront behind Tianhou Palace. With the construction of Tanggu Commercial Street, Lao Meihua rented a 200-square-meter storefront in the prime location between Tanggu Commercial Street and Bund, and bought a merchant of 132 square meters in Yangliuqing Commercial Street.
Fang Shuying said, "If we want to grow and develop, we must take the lead in strategic decision-making. Others stand in the first step to see the problem, we must stand in the third step; If others stand in the third step, we will stand in the fifth step or even the eighth step. "
According to Mr. Fang, a considerable number of shops have failed to find good shops in advance, and there is no room for future development. The development situation is not optimistic. At the beginning, Lao Meihua bought real estate first, which laid a solid material foundation for future development.
It is reported that as of 2005, the sales of old plum blossoms reached15.486 million yuan, up 54.9% year-on-year; Profits and taxes were 857,000 yuan, up 53 1% year-on-year, and the per capita annual income was 30,000 yuan, up 30.4% year-on-year.
"Good development benefits from good strategy, which is formed in the process of development and needs constant change and improvement," Fang Shuying said, taking the development of the old plum blossom franchise store as an example. "In the past, the strategy of Old Plum Blossom was to take Jinjie as its headquarters and develop direct sales. However, the market will not develop as you expected. After the TV series "Qiao Family Courtyard" was broadcast, there were many prodigals, including Qiao Family Courtyard prodigal son, old Beijing prodigal son, Zhengzhou prodigal son and so on.
So, old Meihua followed the crowd and posted a post on the Internet. "The initial fee 1000 yuan, the deposit of 5,000 yuan, you can join, and seven sets of plaques are attached." Old Meihua's new strategy is to let franchisees occupy the market and rapidly expand the market share of the old Meihua brand.
Market is the only criterion for testing strategy. As long as the strategy changes, the situation will be "reversed". Old Meihua quickly established franchise stores in six districts of Tianjin, even Jixian and Baodi, and extended its reach to Hebei, Guangdong, Shaanxi and Xinjiang to occupy the national market. Fang Shuying said, "The annual wholesale amount of American shoes has also jumped from more than 3 million yuan to more than 6.5438+0.5 million yuan."
The reporter went to a franchise store located at No.369, Dagu Road, this city. Manager Zhang Wenxue said: "We joined Laomeihua in July 2006. At the end of September, we officially opened a store of more than 70 square meters, dealing in more than 0/000 products of Old Plum Blossom/KLOC. The monthly operating income is better than expected, and now the customers are full. " There are many high-grade office buildings around this store, and the residents have high cultural taste. In view of this feature, the middle and high-end products of Old Plum Blossom have been introduced into the store, and the market prospect is promising.
Products: Deeply cultivate the market and expand the industrial chain.
Regarding the development of time-honored brands, Wang Xinghua, a professor at School of Economics and Management, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, believes that "for time-honored brands, the biggest advantage lies in their unique products and intangible assets. The uniqueness of the product has increased the viability of the old brand, which is why the old brand can take the lead in the fierce market competition in the past. "
After a hundred years of tempering, Master Guo, who has been engaged in product research and development for many years in Laomeihua, told reporters, "In terms of material selection, the shoes of Laomeihua Thousand-soled Shoes are made of new white cloth and the uppers are made of Ruifuxiang fabric; Technically, eight processes should be completed: gluing, drawing, adjustment, assembly, wrapping, wrapping, folding and finishing. Fourteen layers of soles, with 998 1 stitch per square inch at the bottom; In the shoe inspection, Lao Meihua strictly follows' one positive, two requirements, three no four clean, five flat, six with seven requirements and eight requirements'. " Master Guo believes that it is the pursuit of product quality and the improvement of production technology that makes the old plum blossom flourish in the past century.
"But advantages may also become a burden for the continued development of old brands. Social changes, some of the original practices are no longer suitable for today's market demand, and the environment is changing rapidly, which makes the vitality of products much more fragile, and change becomes particularly important, "said Wang Xinghua.
In recent years, the old plum blossom has been "seeking novelty" and "seeking change". According to Guo, "We invited more than 30 skilled craftsmen from the shoe store to study various foot shapes and design more than 30 shoe last shapes. In the style of shoes, flat-heeled shoes, wedge-heeled shoes and square-heeled shoes have been added, and the shoes have become fashionable square, oblique and round, breaking through the traditional pure wool, woolen cloth, plain cloth, satin, chemical fiber, canvas, cowboy, leather and so on. Techniques such as knitting, threading and sewing have appeared and been added.
Not only the style of shoes, but also the function of shoes. Old plum blossom has developed various functional shoes suitable for modern people. For example, there are health shoes, such as morning exercise shoes, elderly shoes, stepping shoes, walking shoes, pregnant women shoes, and non-slip shoes; There are also shoes suitable for drivers and slippers suitable for modern white-collar workers to carry on business trips; Dragon and phoenix wedding shoes and longevity shoes that keep pace with the times. As Fang Shuying said, "study the market according to the living standards of modern people and be brave in innovation. This market will always have inexhaustible resources. "
"To expand the brand connotation, we must expand the industrial chain, not just develop a single product." Lao Meihua has set a higher goal for herself, that is, "aiming at the huge middle-aged and elderly market, from shoes to clothing to various elderly products and services."
Lao Meihua established her own clothing research and development department. On the one hand, we should develop traditional style clothes, on the other hand, we should develop new clothes that meet the needs of modern middle-aged and elderly people. In this regard, Liu, the assistant manager of Laomeihua's clothing, explained: "In terms of clothing development, we have formulated the eight-character policy of' deeply understanding the human body and keeping up with fashion'. A deep understanding of the human body is to develop clothes suitable for middle-aged and elderly people according to their special body structure, big hips and big breasts. Keeping up with fashion is because modern middle-aged and elderly people love beauty more, their clothes are more beautiful and they are more comfortable to wear. "
With the continuous efforts of Americans, clothing has gradually become another iconic product of Americans. At the Third Folk Art Fair held in Tianjin not long ago, 100 sets of improved Tang costumes with dragon, butterfly and peony patterns embroidered by old plum blossoms were loved by Chinese and foreign friends, and all samples were snapped up.
The success of the clothing industry in "expanding territory" has made Americans full of confidence. Americans are using the newly purchased Yangliuqing Commercial Street to build an "elderly health care center" to provide new services for the elderly, including customized shoes, hats and clothing.
"After this thing is done, Old Meihua still has a big move," Mr. Fang revealed. "Old Meihua is going to build a boutique, take a high-end route, traditional crafts, hand-sewing, and make special customization for the elderly with special needs and the wedding market."
Intangible assets: inheriting the spirit of brand inheritance
Wang Xinghua, a professor at Tianjin University of Science and Technology, said: "The biggest asset of an old brand is intangible assets, which includes two aspects: one is brand and the other is spirit." . "The brand has given the old brand the capital of" relying on the old to sell the old ". Old means a long history and high popularity, but this popularity can only be achieved by the huge investment of new brands. "
Wang Xinghua said, "The breakthrough of time-honored brands is to leverage the tangible market with the brand assets formed by time-honored brands. In today's commodity homogenization, it can make a company stand out. "
At the same time, she also pointed out that the time-honored brand spirit is the essence of China's commercial culture and the root of a region and even a nation's culture and emotion.
"Time-honored brands are the treasures left by our ancestors!" Fang Shu's English is simple and sincere. "We made up our minds to vacate a room and open a small cultural relics museum in Golden Street of Heping Road to witness the century-old history of China in the United States."
"This is a three-inch golden lotus worn by women after foot binding in their early years. This is the tool used to make shoes in those days. This is the shoe last made by Deng Ying Chao's mother and math master Chen Shengshen. Feng Jicai and Pu Zuo also wrote an inscription for Old Plum Blossom. Mr. Fang introduced every exhibit in the exhibition hall to the visitors.
"In my opinion, the greatest wealth accumulated by time-honored brands over the years is goodwill, while that accumulated by century-old brands is century-old goodwill," said Yang Chunhui, chief lawyer of Tianjin Peng Kun Law Firm. "Businessmen have always attached great importance to goodwill. At that time, there was no ISO900 1 certification, but there was a set of specifications, such as' one inch, three needles and a half', which was equivalent to the current quality certification. In the past, old brands mainly relied on self-discipline to accumulate goodwill. "
When learning that LaoMeihua registered trademarks such as "Xiao Meihua" and "XiuMeihua" in advance for children's shoes and women's shoes products that have yet to be developed, Yang Chunhui said, "With the improvement of China's legal system, the protection of trademark intellectual property rights has been promoted to a higher and higher status, which has injected new connotations into the goodwill of time-honored brands. In addition to its own self-discipline, it is more external protection given by relevant state departments. "
"When Ma was alive, he said,' Old plum blossom is an old name of Tianjin people, and it should be passed down like a baton.' Fang Shuying said, "I think this kind of inheritance is not only the inheritance of goods, but also the inheritance of spirit." Over the years, Old Plum Blossom has experienced the innovation of system and business model, but the professional ethics, business norms and service tenet inherited by the old brand have not been lost.
"Over the years, the old Meihua shoe store has maintained the convenience measures of' walking, mailing, sending, ordering, changing, visiting, returning, changing and repairing'." Mr. Fang said that he took out a large stack of letters from the cupboard and roughly counted them, with more than 200 letters. These letters come from all over the motherland, from Guizhou and Yunnan in the south to Heilongjiang in the north, from Xinjiang, Ningxia and Gansu in the northwest, and from more than 20 provinces and cities such as Guangdong and Fujian in the southeast, all of which are letters from China in the United States to buy shoes.
Liu Fenghua, the special person in charge of mail order of Old Plum Blossom, introduced one of thousands of mail order stories in the past decades. "A PLA soldier once wrote to his mother to buy a pair of little shoes for her birthday. First, we sent him a letter and asked him to send his mother's feet and shoes. After that, I went to the post office to collect the remittance of shoes samples, then went downstairs to buy shoes, bought a foot and a half of packaging cloth, sewed the package, and wrote the address to send it; Write another letter and tell him,' You sent 50 yuan money, 35 yuan shoes and 3.5 yuan postage', and how much money is left to send back. Liu Fenghua said that she has to deal with 50 or 60 such bills every month.
New salespeople are often confused about this, thinking it is time-consuming, laborious and unprofitable. Over time, they found that this is the heirloom of the century-old number and the spiritual demeanor behind the century-old brand.