Designer Ban Xiaoxue: Enough to be able to make more people become your customers

After a year, when the brand has reached a new level, what is the brand founder and designer Ban Xiaoxue thinking about?

Undoubtedly, in the emerging Chinese independent designer brand industry, the business results achieved by BAN XIAOXUE, which was founded only five years ago, are quite dazzling.

A year ago, his eponymous brand BAN XIAOXUE had nearly 30 independent stores (including direct sales and agents. At present, the number of BAN XIAOXUE brand independent stores has reached more than 60 (including direct sales and agents), compared with the previous year. I have doubled it.

After a year, when the brand has reached a new level, what is the brand founder and designer Ban Xiaoxue thinking about? The reporter once again has a deep dialogue with Ban Xiaoxue, and can clearly feel that his love for design work is as always, At the same time, he shared some new thoughts and hopes for breakthroughs in how to make his brand go further. He also heard the voice of the brand BAN XIAOXUE agent.

Breakthrough style, new and old fusion innovation

Recently, the BAN XIAOXUE brand appeared in the fashion release platform outside the traditional fashion week: FASHION NOW. The theme of the brand's 2018 spring and summer series is “Beauty is beautiful”. Compared with the previous series of “the same”, “use the best” and “I love you”, this series of themes is more calm and inclusive, perhaps This is also the mood change of Ban Xiaoxue after operating the brand.

“A few months ago, I put everything down to prepare for this show, from how to set the theme, how to retain the inherent label of BAN XIAOXUE and bring innovation, surprise everyone, think for a long time, prepare for a long time. And FASHION NOW is the most suitable platform for brand breakthroughs and changes.” Ban Xiaoxue said to “Glory” at the backstage of the big show in Beijing’s Qiqi Center.

“In the past, we made a clothing series, we chose to do it from a single point of view, but this time the new series contains many elements that seem to be unrelated between China and foreign countries. For example, we use traditional fabrics from the Yunguichuan area. At the same time, we made a second transformation, such as adding a metallic color print on the fabric, which is in sharp contrast with the original ingenious style, showing a more innovative and impactful effect. In addition to the Chinese elements, we also used India. The printing elements, the Japanese kimono elements, the European classic suits, etc., add a girdle to the clothing type. These elements were previously created by BAN XIAOXUE very rarely at the same time, but we chose to intersperse all the elements this time. Together."

Speaking of this, Ban Xiaoxue is quite emotional. It is very difficult to naturally integrate these elements. "BAN XIAOXUE's inherent label can't be lost. Everyone knows that the brand is the poetry of the East, but apart from this, we can give What surprises did you bring? At that time, I even thought that this show might not be done. Later, I deleted it a bit. In the last week, I felt that I was almost adjusted to express an 'inclusive' attitude."

Enough to be able to make more people become your customers

Although the BAN XIAOXUE brand has grown larger and larger, it is inevitable that the founder has to deal with different issues, but the last thing he wants to give up is design. Even if the design team has nearly 10 people, there are 1600 in all seasons. Multiple SKUs, all designed by him personally.

For the brand's design, Ban Xiaoxue admits that the next stage is to break through the style span.

In order to widen the style of the brand and make the products closer to the market, and let customers of different ages and different consumption layers enter the brand, Ban Xiaoxue specially designed four different positionings of “water, soil, fire and air”. Style lines, where “water” stands for romantic poetry, “earth” stands for oriental retro, “fire” stands for exaggerated artistic personality, and “air” stands for younger vitality. The price range of these four styles ranges from 800 to 900. Thousands and tens of thousands of accessories, as well as two hundred and three hundred yuan.

“In the past, we always said that brand positioning must be done purely, but now the brand span is very large, the style is diverse and fickle, and today’s Chinese consumers are in a period of alternating customers. For example, we have a lot of shops. VIP is the mother and daughter to buy together, but the products they choose are completely different.” Ban Xiaoxue believes.

Finding and retaining consumers is an internal skill that every fashion brand must constantly cultivate and improve. Ban Xiaoxue believes that young designer brands are important before they embark on commercial channels, but it is equally important to be able to compromise.

“When faced with a mature customer who is constantly seeking to change and upgrade, and consumers who can't find new things in traditional brands, the brand must be tolerant enough to open your door and accept them. It cannot be said that the customer is 70. After the 80s, I can't enter my store. This attitude is very important." Ban Xiaoxue said.

Control the speed of opening a store, refuse to bloom everywhere

“I am a designer. I will do business from the perspective of the designer. I don’t understand the commercial routine of the previous brand. Second, the road that others have traveled is not suitable for BAN XIAOXUE.”

A year ago, when “Glory” interviewed Ban Xiaoxue, BAN XIAOXUE had nearly 30 independent stores (except for Beishangguang and other areas, as agents). Currently, BAN XIAOXUE has more than 60 independent stores (except Beishangguang). In addition, other regions are agents.) More than 30 independent stores have been added in one year.

When asked how to choose an agent, Ban Xiaoxue gave the answer: "The main thing is to look at people. We will also choose new people who like our brand to represent BAN XIAOXUE. Only he understands BAN XIAOXUE enough. It will be enough to introduce BAN XIAOXUE to consumers accurately."

It is undeniable that from the sales channel, Ban Xiaoxue has taken a different sales path from most designer brands, that is, working with agents, but it is never easy to trust each other and cooperate with each other. Businesses are different from designers. They are rational, pragmatic, and grounded. They want to see what you have done. They are not interested in the theme, design, and inspiration before the products meet market needs."

Undoubtedly, today, pure commercial brands have been hard to resonate with the market and consumers. Only fashion brands with brand spirit and DNA that cannot be imitated are truly sustainable. For the brand BAN XIAOXUE, which has just been founded for 5 years, Ban Xiaoxue said that he hopes that the brand will open the BAN XIAOXUE store in the right city and the right place, instead of blossoming everywhere.

Agents voice: products, feelings, commercialization, brands have

In order to gain a deeper understanding of the brand BAN XIAOXUE, "Glory" also interviewed Vanessa, the general manager of the brand agent company in Chengdu. In the process of communicating with her, she directly felt her love and understanding of the brand. It also just confirmed Ban Xiaoxue's selection criteria for agents. When asked why she decided to represent the brand? She said:

“The market for Chinese independent designer brands at the time was not clear. Everyone was exploring and trying. The designers were eager to personalize the brand, and hoped to jump out and let people know that they were accepting themselves. The whole environment was rather impetuous. When BAN XIAOXUE was like a green mountain moss that met after the mountain was heavy, he quietly made his own design, starting from the heart, naturally, but it stood out in this impetuous atmosphere. Because I like it, I do BAN XIAOXUE Brand agents are also natural, as if they are destined."

As an agent, Vanessa has been tracking the development of Chinese designer brands and industries. For the reasons behind the rapid development of the brand BAN XIAOXUE in recent years, she believes that:

“Being a brand, products are the origin, feelings must be there, and commercialization is also necessary. These BAN XIAOXUE are all available. The most important thing for the designer brand is to embody the designer's philosophy. It can be successfully displayed to the market. The foundation and accurate positioning; the concept of brand in culture is very clear, taking naturalism as the foundation of brand culture, soaking the DNA of the brand in different theme series, adhering to the initial heart. In commercial, paying attention to design process and value Balance; product series development diversified to meet the needs of customers."

The brand is ready to give the team a chance to "wrestle"

For the future development of the brand, Ban Xiaoxue still maintains the mentality of “preparing things”. When talking about online channels, he said frankly:

"We didn't do the online before, because we are not ready yet. Now we are ready, and we are officially in preparation. Of course, I will not make it a pure purchase channel. I think online is more. Promote and help us reach out to customers who can't buy or don't know the brand and products."

In addition to online and offline distribution channels, when the brand develops to a certain stage, the most needed is talent, especially for a young fashion brand. In this regard, Ban Xiaoxue said, “Every stage is lacking, but I prefer internal training, because BAN XIAOXUE is a young brand, can not directly inject the experience of other brands into this new brand, I do not want to do other Brand, so I must inject new ideas into this brand. Of course, such a team can not succeed at one time. I also told everyone not to expect too much from this. I must definitely wrestle. BAN XIAOXUE can give you Is the chance to wrestle."

Looking forward to more cross-border cooperation

At the end of 2013, the brand of the same name founded by Ban Xiaoxue accepted external investment. As a person, in the face of investment, what should be paid attention to by the designer brand, Ban Xiaoxue’s view is: “It seems that the capital is injected into the brand. In fact, the final docking is the person. The brand should look at the capital of the docking, not the capital. See who has a large capital base, so whether you choose an investment institution or a partner, people are the most important. The understanding of the brand is the same, and the attitude toward the brand is consistent. Otherwise, more money will eventually result in both losses. ”

For the planning of overseas markets, Ban Xiaoxue made it clear that “as a Chinese designer, the most familiar is the Chinese market. Without preparation, I will not take my team to take risks, but we are always preparing. , feel free to wait for this moment to come."

At the end of the interview, talking about the creation of the next brand image, Ban Xiaoxue said that he hopes that the brand can have more interesting cross-border cooperation in the future, because the brand attitude conveyed by this is very important. We also hope to see that the BAN XIAOXUE brand will be able to resonate with the larger base of consumers in the BAN XIAOXUE brand.

Editor in charge: Wang Zhen