Beijing News Shell Finance News (Reporter Yu Menger) Swiss Richemont Group's luxury brand Chloé recently announced that it will shut down its subsidiary brand See by Chloé.
The brand's chief executive, Riccardo Bellini, said in a statement that the shutdown will be rolled out gradually over the next three years.
According to the data, See by Chloé was launched in 2001 by Phoebe Philo, the former design director of Chloé. The main customers are young girls who love fashion. It was once touted as a sub-line brand that can go beyond the main line.
But between 2017 and 2018, the brand's revenue slumped by 38%, and in March 2019, its sales were down 57.6% from a year earlier.
Some analysts pointed out that this may be one of the main reasons why See by Chloé was eliminated.
Riccardo Bellini said the move was a natural and necessary evolution in the long run.
At present, employees and suppliers of See by Chloé have been informed that they will continue to work on the main brand to bring a new look, and reiterate that a single brand image will be the future brand strategy.
At the same time, he also predicted that this year is the 70th anniversary of Chloe's establishment, and there will be refreshing plans.
Some people in the industry believe that the decision to gradually shut down See by Chloé is not only in line with Chloé's own new development direction, but also in line with the industry trend in recent years.
Closing down the sub-line has become a boom, and luxury brands collectively develop the main line
Among the top brands, Dior, Prada, and GiorgioArmani all have sub-lines, and the well-known Marc By Marc Jacobs, CK, etc. are also products of the times.
With the polarization of the fashion industry, consumers are more in need of top luxury brands and affordable fashion, and there is not much market space in the middle area.
Coupled with the endless number of joint names, brands have begun to integrate product lines. Many brands have given up or are closing secondary brands and sub-brands, focusing on the main brand to convey a clearer brand message.
Founded in 1904, Burberry Prorsum merged with Burberry London and Burberry Brit, two other sub-line brands under (Burberry) Burberry in 2016.
Armani, as the first luxury brand to use the concept of sub-line, once had the most sub-line business, but announced a streamlined layout in 2017, and merged Armani Collezioni and Armani Jeans since 2018, leaving only Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani and A|X Armani three main series.
In May last year, Valentino announced that it will follow a new positioning target from 2022, focusing on a single brand, and all activities related to the business of the sub-line brand RED Valentino will be terminated from 2024.
Jacopo Venturini, CEO of Valentino, said that only by focusing enough can the brand achieve stable and sustainable organic growth.
In addition, Givenchy's sub-line brand G Givenchy, Max Mara's sub-line brand Weekend Max Mara and Alexander McQueen's sub-line brand McQ have rarely appeared on the brand's mainstream social media today on the platform.
Some luxury goods practitioners believe that for audiences who have a relatively vague understanding of the brand, the existence of the sub-line business has been difficult to make a prominent contribution to the brand image, and over time, the sales contribution is also very limited.
The sub-line brands, such as Miu Miu and Emporio Armani, which are considered to have been successful, did not deliberately distance themselves from the main line brands in terms of pricing, and there was no "shadow" of the main line in style.
After years of development, they have been separated from the main line and exist independently. This requires the formation of a completely differentiated operation idea, but requires the brand to invest more capital costs.
The concept of "light luxury" is outdated, and the sub-line has become "abandoned child"?
The decade from 2000 to 2010 was the golden age of the sub-line of luxury brands. Some brands launched sub-line business to expand the consumer market.
The design with the main line style and relatively low prices have attracted many young consumers, and the popularity of the concept of "light luxury" has brought considerable income to the brand.
According to public information, the "highlight moment" of light luxury brands was in 2014, when the financial reports of global luxury brands were bleak, Coach, Kate Spade, Furla and other brands There has been a trend of high growth, once crushing luxury brands.
But the good times didn't last long. Just one year later, many fashion brands that positioned themselves as light luxury all experienced a drop or even plummet in stock price, market value, and profit margin.
The advantage of the once-hot luxury brand is that it can better grasp the current fashion trends and trends, and the price that is close to the people caters to the appetite of young consumers.
Compared with the old luxury brands that designed the "earth taste" at that time, the light luxury brands have more advantages.
Liu Jie, who used to work in luxury sales, told the Beijing News that in the eyes of many consumers, sub-line brands are affordable luxury brands.
“The original meaning of the low-priced sub-line was to provide young consumers with entry-level products for luxury, leading them to buy higher-priced main line products. But today, the products launched by luxury brands are very 'online' in terms of design and concept. , Posting products on personal social media can also get a lot of likes, so why don’t consumers directly buy better-looking and more meaningful mainline products?”
As Liu Jie said, with the changing trend, the rejuvenation of luxury brands no longer needs to be realized through sub-line.
Many brands recognize that young customers and social media are the main drivers of future growth, and focus on these two areas.
Smaller size mini bags and make-up, perfume, etc. have replaced the secondary line and become the new entry-level products.
In order to avoid the dispersion of resources caused by the shift of consumer focus, let the sub-line brands fade out and focus on the main brand to develop different product lines, it will have better results, and for those brands that want to transform but are in financial difficulties, closing the sub-line It is also one of the ways to save costs for "self-help".