Maje The Parent Company Opened 100Th Stores In The Mainland And Borrowed From Shandong. Is It Satisfactory?



Compared with the old brand that has been ploughing in the Chinese market for many years, Maje is still very young, and the ability to get the current results is fast growing.

Recently, Beijing Chaoyang Joy City opened a new shop of Maje, a French fashion brand. The seemingly ordinary new shop opened up a new node for its parent company, 100th shops in the mainland of China.

"The one hundred store is undoubtedly a milestone for us, but it is only a very early milestone."

DanielLalonde, President and chief executive of SMCP group, said in an interview with interface news recently that "100" is only the sum of the three brands of the group in mainland China. If there is a single brand, the number of shops is far from enough.

At present, there are 47 shops in the mainland of China, Sandro and Maje stores, and Claudie Pierlot6 home. "The medium and long-term goal is to turn the number of stores up to five times, that is to say, expand to 500, which is the most conservative prediction of our brand's potential for China's market development."

SMCP group president and CEO Daniel Lalonde

SMCP Group officially entered the Chinese consumers' vision from 2012, when it opened its first store in Hongkong IFC mall, but it came to the mainland in 2013.

At this level, SMCP is still a new person in China, and IsabelleGuichot, the CEO of Maje, who interviewed the interface news, also believes that Maje is still very young compared with those who have been working in the Chinese market for many years.

In the early 2000s, the operation of SMCP in China was completely sold through wholesale channels such as department stores and so on. The brand had weak control over its terminals in the Chinese market, and there was almost no corresponding marketing and market moves, which made consumers aware of their three brands at a low level.

In Europe, however, it is another scene.

"SMCP is the market leader in Europe."

Lalonde said, but the situation is not the same. In recent years, the slowdown in the European economy and the overall retail predicament forced the brand to find new growth points for the company.

"Through the purchase behavior of Chinese tourists in European department stores, we can see that they have high enthusiasm for SMCP brand."

Lalonde said that the brand of Maje and other brands in Le pun Ma, Lao FA Ye Department store, Paris Spring Department Store Harrods and Selfridges and other shopping malls is a very good display window for Chinese consumers. He also saw positive feedback in the insight of Chinese consumers. This is the driving force for the group to formally bring the brand to China. "I will travel to China almost every two to three months, so I am familiar with the market situation there."

Before joining the SMCP group, Lalonde spent most of his career in LVMH group, which is also an important source of knowledge for Chinese consumers' luxury consumption habits.

The increasingly important Chinese market in the eyes of luxury brands is attracting more and more brands to compete. This also means the rapid saturation of hot cities.

SMCP is well aware of this. They have not focused their attention on China's first tier cities. "Our stores are distributed in 19 cities in China. It is gratifying to note that our penetration in second tier cities is also very significant."

Lalonde pointed out that the performance potential of Tianjin, Dalian, Harbin, Wuhan, Chongqing and Xi'an is no less than that of North Guangdong.

Excluding Claudie Pierlot, which has just officially entered China this year, Sandro and Maje account for 45% of the total retail layout.

Sandro Beijing Sanlitun Taigu store

Sandro Hongkong Taigu Plaza store

In just over 5 years, SMCP has achieved double-digit growth in the mainland market.

According to the group's latest 2017 earnings report, the group's core profit grew by 16.8%, from 129 million 600 thousand euros in fiscal year 2016 to 153 million 700 thousand euros, and it is expected to further increase to 17% in 2018.

The remarkable growth last year was seen as the cooperation with Shandong Ruyi group.

"Before the Shandong Ruyi group, the private company KKR owns the vast majority of SMCP group. After deciding to sell their shares in 2016, we have discussed with many potential partners, and the most impressive one is Shandong Ruyi group."

Lalonde said that the two sides are strategic partnership, which means that outside the capital, the help provided by Shandong Ruyi group is limited to the overall strategy and investment plan of the SMCP group. However, in terms of operation and execution, the management of SMCP group still enjoys the right of independence.

The listing of SMCP also brought real gold and silver to Shandong Ruyi group, and more importantly, pave the way for the acquisition of Swiss brand Bally in the near future.

From the confirmation acquisition to the SMCP listing, the high recognition of Shandong Ruyi group in China has brought great benefits to SMCP. Perhaps for most consumers, the recognition of SMCP group started from Shandong's Ruyi acquisition.

A year after Shandong Ruyi group announced its acquisition of SMCP, SMCP group was listed in Paris in October 2017.

Maje Tmall flagship store

Sandro Tmall flagship store

The most noteworthy data in the SMCP group's 2017 earnings report is that the group's digital sales increased by 46% last year, accounting for 12.1% of the group's total sales.

SMCP's electric business started behind. It wasn't until 2016 that its three brands opened its flagship store in Tmall. But in the process of development, Tmall became the most important position for SMCP group to expand in China.

With the support of Tmall big data, three brands joined Tmall, which accelerated the recognition among Chinese consumers and brought in a large number of fans.

After having tasted the sweetness of Tmall, Sandro Men and ClaudiePierlot first showed up in the Tmall double eleven Fashion Festival in November 2017. This year, 20th anniversary of Maje is celebrated through the Tmall brand day. At the 20th anniversary celebration event held in Beijing, the brand invited Ouyang and Nana as the brand ambassadors. From the choice of ambassadors to the overall atmosphere of the party and the 20th anniversary exclusive limited products, Maje is trying to cater to the tastes and preferences of the Chinese millennials and no longer adhere to the "French elegant" brand image.

Maje 20th anniversary celebration and Tmall brand day event

In fact, for SMCP, similar activities like Maje 20th anniversary celebration were all rare. The whole group's external voice and propaganda activities have been relatively low-key, mainly based on the traditional way of quietly opening stores.

But in the interview with Isabelle and interface news, she said the company attached great importance to the Tmall brand day activities, which indicates that the company is adjusting the past strategy, and more precision marketing activities have been put on the agenda this year.

Because of the relatively low profile propaganda strategy, the recognition of SMCP group's brand in the Chinese market has not increased dramatically, but in Lalonde's view, this is not a problem, but an opportunity.

"If we still get a substantial improvement in our performance in the context of lower brand awareness, there will be plenty of room for growth."

He believes that in the company gradually landing marketing activities and electricity providers.

After that, brand awareness will increase, and sales will usher in another new peak. Only a series of planned items are not yet in place.

Tmall has become the best springboard for major brands to expand the Asia Pacific market. It is also the most convenient and effective method. Over 500 million of the monthly active users provide Chinese consumers with a portrait of the brand.

According to statistics, as of March 2017, 75% of the world's most valuable consumer brands released by Forbes were stationed in Tmall.

At present, Tmall has set up the brand of LVMH group's five major businesses, including wine and spirits, fashion leather products, perfume, cosmetics, watches and jewellery and retail, and luxury brands such as upper and lower, Tod's, HOGAN and so on.

In August 1, 2017, Tmall luxury virtual APP LuxuryPavilion was formally launched, enabling Tmall's luxury brands to display and touch up to high-end users of Tmall 500 million users.

Tmall plans to build the App into the world's largest brand self catering luxury online platform.

Maje 20th anniversary advertising blockbuster

According to Lalonde, apart from Tmall, the group is also communicating with Jingdong and temple library. If it goes smoothly, SMCP will bring its brand to these e-commerce platforms in the middle of the year.

"We hope not only to do these things in China, but also to promote the development of electronic commerce worldwide."

For example, the three brands of SMCP were launched in October last year in China after the reorganization of the self-employed electricity supplier official website, although traffic can not compare with Tmall, but it is an important part of spreading the brand image.

WeChat is another digital focus besides the electricity supplier.

"Maje and Sandro websites are drained by WeChat, so WeChat is the most important part of our social strategy, and more importantly, in the overall strategy of the company, WeChat will be the main CRM tool in the Chinese market."

Lalonde said.

At the same time, WeChat is also an important position to enhance brand awareness.

"In my view, the channel is" unknown ", meaning that because of the differences between individuals and shopping scenarios, the channel for each consumer to choose shopping finally is unpredictable and unproven, so what we can do is to enable consumers to interact with our brand in their own way, that is to say, for all channels, we will provide the same level of convenience and functionality without any weight.

Online, SMCP puts the cooperation with KOL in the first place. After all, in localizing activities, local KOL is undoubtedly the most efficient channel to draw close relationship with consumers. "The 20th anniversary activity of Maje is a practice."

Claudie Pierlot 2018 spring summer series

Claudie Pierlot 2017 spring summer series

For the multi brand matrix group, the most important point of building a healthy matrix is the differentiated positioning between brands, so as to ensure that the internal brands of the group can form a complementary relationship rather than competing for customers.

SMCP group's three sub brands seem to be classic French style, but Lalonde told the interface news that from the group data, only about 15% of consumers bought two or three brands of SMCP at the same time, proving that the overlap between the target customers of the brand is very low, and there is no internal competition. "Sandro women, Maje women and ClaudiePierlot women are not the same group."

This allows us to penetrate into a larger market. "

Maje's M package, launched in spring and summer 2016, has been widely praised for its reputation in the Chinese market. Thanks to this, sales of group accessories in fiscal 2016 increased by 41% over the same period last year. Maje CEO IsabelleGuicho told the interface news that Maje also made plans to focus on the advantages of accessories in the next series.

In addition, the group's brand Maje and Sandro have signed a 6 year licensing agreement with the eyewear manufacturer distributor Mondottica to plan to enter the field of luxury glasses.

Except for glasses, including handbags and

Such accessories and costumes will be the focus of brand development in the short term.

But from the steady growth of the Chinese market to IPO, Lalonde did not plan to introduce new brands to the group at this stage.

"Since last October 2017 IPO, many companies have found us, but we are still more practical. At present, the focus of the group is to develop the existing three brands."

Lalonde said the group had a project to investigate potential acquisitions, but it would take the next step only if the company thought it was beneficial to the brand portfolio.

Maje Macao No. 1 Plaza store

Lalonde had previously predicted that the group's total sales will enter the euro one billion club in 2019, but now it is likely that this goal will be achieved ahead of schedule.

"Last year, our sales were 912 million euros, the growth rate has exceeded expectations, so we should be able to break through the one billion key this year."

After listing last year, the group said to the South China Morning Post that the company's goal is to make light in China.

As a leader, however, the competition of light luxury brands in the Chinese market is still fierce. Although data show that in the next five years, the sales of Chinese light luxury products will increase to 11%-13% and increase to 620 billion yuan in 2025.

Among them, MichaelKors and Coach are all brands that have been rooted in the Chinese market for many years, and have high recognition and customer groups. In May last year, Coach bought the rival KateSpade at the price of 22 billion 400 million US dollars. In July of the same year, Michael Kors announced the acquisition of the British shoe brand JimmyChoo with 8 or 9 billion 600 million pounds, each of which was establishing its own brand matrix in China.

The late arrival of SMCP is obviously facing greater difficulty in siege.

JohnGuy, director of European luxury goods department at Mainfirst Bank, has also pointed out that if the brand intends to enter the retail sector and expand its retail layout, IPO must focus on order and growth. "Although SMCP's brand awareness is very good, sales growth is not equal to profit growth."

Therefore, SMCP must continue to look for solutions to increase profits and reduce overseas market expansion costs.

"I am more like running a small LVMH group."

Lalonde has put his work experience in LVMH group on top of SMCP group. However, there are some differences in the shopping decisions and psychology between the luxury consumer portrait and the light luxury consumer portrait. It is the test whether the "young" SMCP in the Chinese market can maintain the current momentum.