text/ Jincuodao Channel
The American brand that has barely maintained in China for 12 years still can't hold on.
Recently, many GAP stores across the country have closed. Not only are jeans discounted to 48 yuan, but even the supplies in the store have to be sold for money:
fire extinguisher 15 yuan per ladder, 200 yuan, and 100 yuan for half a person model.
customers went to the store to rush to buy things, and posted their results online. Amway netizens quickly went to get the wool: "GAP closed the store and cleared the store, the average price is 14 yuan, the happiness of 1 cup of milk tea."
Online madness is just an appearance, someone is here to When the corresponding stores were shopping, they found that even if the minimum price was 10% off, GAP Yemen would be deserted.
Compared with the revenue of US$16.3 billion at its peak, GAP has closed stores and its revenue has declined for many years.
even pointed out: "It's thankful for such a boring brand to not have a performance plunge."
once opened stores around the world, Obama has been fans of how fast fashion giants fell down?
was made famous by the US president, but
became China's "road goods"
talk about his life experience, GAP is the originator of fast fashion.
, which were bustling Nanjing Road, , and Benni Road, , which were flashing with huge electronic screens, were all imitators of GAP.
Not only does Obama often take his family to visit GAP stores, but sexy actress Sharon Stone also walks the red carpet in a GAP white shirt, and Madonna has been its spokesperson.
As of 2000 years ago, GAP and its brands formed a multinational fashion giant with nearly 4,200 stores and annual revenue exceeding US$16.3 billion.
But unexpectedly, the style of the master has changed suddenly after coming to China, and the high-end filters of foreign brands have no effect.
Because GAP was not optimistic about the Chinese market at the beginning, it ignored China when it entered Asia in 1995 and went to Japan first. The wrong strategy of
directly led to the Uniqlo , which is called "Japanese GAP", to overtake, and also lost the opportunity to enter China.
When we came to China in 2010, ZARA, H&M, and Uniqlo had already divided the world. GAP was 4 years behind H&M and ZARA and 8 years behind Uniqlo.
This time difference makes GAP seriously underestimate the degree of Chinese people's harshness on fast fashion brands.
GAP was beaten by ZARA in terms of the new speed.
Before GAP, the Chinese people's definition of fast fashion was ZARA.
ZARA has more than 600 designers. It only takes two weeks for a piece of clothing to be released from design draft to put on the shelves; the powerful logistics system can also allow all products to go from downstream to consumers to pay for orders, no more than 36 hours.
and GAP's product design time is twice that of ZARA. The version of process needs to be completed in collaboration with external companies, and the final shipment time is 5 times that of ZARA.
Therefore, there are statistics. Consumers visit ZARA stores 17 times a year, but only give GAP 4 opportunities.
In terms of clothing quality, GAP can't beat Uniqlo.
A professional purchasing agent once revealed that he handled fast fashion brands. Although there is no particular difference in quality among several companies, they have problems such as long and short sleeves, thread heads, stains, etc., Uniqlo's quality control is very strict, so he almost never encountered it. Have been to customer complaints about quality.
But what GAP is most criticized is the quality of clothes: "Twenty or thirty years can be used for wholesale."
GAP does not have its own factory, and all products are obtained from fixed OEM factories, so quality supervision is a big problem.
The most serious time, GAP recalled 2749 baby T-shirts because the print contains unsafe ingredients.
Some media once summarized this: Uniqlo has high cost performance, rich basic models, cheap H&M, and GAP has no advantages, it is just an old capital of American casual style.
Therefore, many people will only go to GAP to redirect when they are discounted.
But I didn’t expect that the cost-effectiveness of GAP is also a false proposition.
Discounts,
GAP's "pseudo-cost-performance ratio"
When GAP was in the United States, GAP was a national brand that could contract the wardrobe of all classes and all family members on its own.
practical and fashionable, even Leslie Cheung wears GAP.
is highly popular, and the main reason is the cost-effectiveness. On the US website, there are still $20.99 per set of clothes.
But in China, the ultimate cost-effectiveness of is gone.
A children's sweatshirt is priced at 399 yuan, and any pair of pants is 499. Even if you have a fracture now, many people think it is not worth it.
The reason is that as a foreign brand GAP, would rather have a discount than a price reduction.
Chinese people like to provide high-end filters to foreign brands, and GAP is unwilling to give up such high-end dividends.
Therefore, China's GAP pursues high-end brand tone design: the store decoration uses American minimalist style, and the advertising films are Zhou Xun , Liu Wen , JJ Lin .
What’s strange is that pursues high-end GAP, but still cannot afford the cost-effectiveness.
Because it is very clear that Chinese consumers like cost-effectiveness, and only the price advantage is the biggest advantage.
Therefore, GAP continues the discount strategy in the United States. When it is most frequently discounted every other week, the same piece of clothing may also be reduced from 30% off to 50% off or even 30% off.
was originally an expired discount promotion, but it was broken by GAP. Everyone was not in a hurry to go to GAP to buy goods, but waited for it to be "cheaper next week." Behind the crazy discount of
loses himself, there is a bigger problem: it is difficult to destock .
is used to making a large number of basic GAPs. It is not as good as ZARA, nor is it as versatile as Uniqlo, and it is the easiest to accumulate inventory.
But it can’t be sold when it is launched. After becoming an old model, it is difficult to impress customers even if it is discounted.
Therefore, the discount of GAP is actually more like the funds recovered after the marketing strategy fails. Not only does it have a full discount or a discount, but it also needs to put a lottery box at the door to let consumers draw a coupon and quickly make the annoying failed money. take away.
's dependence on discount promotions has seriously damaged consumers' awareness of GAP's brand .
Some industry insiders analyzed: "The greater the discount, the more consumers know where the bottom line of the brand is. Nowadays, many consumers are no longer willing to buy goods at the original price."
Because of greed, GAP uses "pseudo-cost-performance ratio" to deceive consumers by using "pseudo-cost-performance ratio" method. , but he shot himself in the foot, from an international big brand to exclusively wool, and his reputation and ability to make money have declined year by year.
In 2014, GAP was also named one of the "Ten Fashion Brands that May Disappear in the Next Ten Years" by " Forbes ".
design is bad, GAP's fatal injury
Although it has been in China for 12 years, many people still have only the impression of GAP with 3 letters of "GAP". What the brand most fears about is not old age, but the unchanging stickiness.
For this pedantic approach, GAP's former design director Rebecca Bet once said in an interview with the " Wall Street Journal ": "Gap has never been a design-oriented company, and designers are actually restricted everywhere."
This is serious It has affected the shopping experience of Chinese people.
What Chinese people feel most obvious is that they often cannot find clothes that suit their figure in GAP.
Many people complain that GAP is designed for large-size girls: "Originally, wearing medium size, but when it comes to GAP, it is big even with small size."
The more serious problem is the men's clothing area, almost every GAP men's clothing is based on The Westerner's wide shoulder design and the upright and stylish look seen on the poster, it turns into a vulgar and sloppy when it comes to Chinese men.
In fact, before coming to China, GAP had cooperated with more than 400 Chinese clothing factories, and the clothes provided by these factories accounted for 30% of all GAP products.
However, after GAP arrived in China, these factories still had to produce clothes that did not meet the needs of the Chinese under its American retro style.
To this day, GAP has only more than 150 stores left in China, with a net loss of US$162 million in the first quarter of this year. The localization of
is actually a common problem for fast fashion brands. The most obvious problem of
is that does not respect Chinese consumers, and the price and quality are seriously inconsistent.
The most basic shirts and jeans for fast fashion brands are worth 200 to 300 yuan. If it is a coat, the price will easily reach thousands.
However, the quality of these brands is sorry for such high prices. Brands such as H&M, TOPSHOP are frequent visitors to China's quality blacklist. In 2016, more than 30,000 items of H&M, Pull&bear and other brands failed the inspection and were named by relevant departments.
The most problematic is H&M. In September 2021, it was fined 290,000 yuan in the name of "China Limited Edition". In this year alone, it has been for adulteration, fake as real, false propaganda, etc. The problem was fined seven times by the regulatory authorities.
products and experience cannot maintain reputation, and the brand's revenue is destined to decline accordingly.
As of the end of 2021, H&M has closed 60 stores in China, losing 100 billion yuan; before that, brands such as Forever 21, TOPSHOP, etc. have successively withdrawn from China.
Whether the brand focuses on fashion or classics, consumers' needs should be put first.
LOGOs are outdated, but GAP is still using the "American casual style" to educate consumers, which is asking for trouble.
market needs classic models, not static.
It is not the opponent who defeats GAP, but himself.
Fashion is always changing, but innovation will not change. #Expert Plan#
Reference:
Eliza Brooke. "Shrinking the Gap: how the clothing brand lost its way"
New Weekly. "It's expensive and rustic, why are there anyone wearing GAP"
Tiger Sniff. "Gap a little bit". "Gap a little bit No America》
日本 Neweekly. "GAP, there is a "generation gap" with Chinese people"
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Author of this article | Jingxu
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