Prada's Scenery Is No Longer What She Used To Be.

Miranda was dressed in a suit and hand. Prada (Prada) The grey and white leather bag went into the skyscraper in a bold way, and the staff of the office were entering the tense alert because of her coming. They panicked up the table, put on high heels, painted lip gloss, and looked anxious and dignified.

In the movie the devil wears Prada, Miranda's "devil's head" image is deductive, and Prada, which runs through the film, is regarded as the unique symbol of the elegant and cold fashion magazine editor in chief. This popular fashion teaching film has also reinforced Prada's elitism and a slightly complacent sense of identity, like the devil.

At the moment, however, the devil is not complacent. After a gratifying growth in sales of 44.9% and 12% in the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years, the poor performance of Prada group shocked the whole industry: in the 2014 fiscal year, Prada group's global net profit plunged 28%, and sales fell 1%; this is the first time that profits fell since its listing in Hongkong four years ago.

In addition to the Asia Pacific region where everyone is not performing well, Prada has also seen varying degrees of decline in the European region where its competitors have maintained a good momentum. These two places are their first and second largest markets in the world.

With the growth of other brands such as MiuMiu and Church 's, the leading role of Waterloo is Prada, whose brand share is 80% of the same brand. (global sales are down 1.6%).

Just after a year, the rapid decline of Prada is a big surprise. Although the weakening demand in the Asia Pacific region, led by the Chinese market, is now plaguing the whole country. Luxury goods The common problems of the industry, but the anti-corruption in the Chinese market and the turbulence in Hongkong's environment are not enough to explain Prada's even worse performance compared with its competitors and such a rapid drop.

What happened to the old devil?

That damn handbag.

"Handbag... Often sold out, because it is not like shoes and clothing, no size. It's much easier to buy a handbag than to buy a skirt, because you don't have to face age, weight and so on. Handbags have a magic power, making them the easiest way to make money. Handbags are a miracle of the company. "

Prada designer Musia Prada once told Fashion Critic so proudly. What she did not say is that handbags also provide a way to make dreams easier and give you confidence.

So, like many other luxury brands, the most easily sold handbags play an important role in Prada's sales. They are easy to create and produce, and the profits are frightening. Looking through Prada's earnings, handbags even contributed more than 65% of Prada's sales.

As a fanatical communist with a degree in politics, Masia was very resistant to entering the fashion industry. But in the face of her dying family business, she finally came forward. The success of Prada was the famous Prada black nylon bag that she designed in 1985.

Another one that whips up the global whirlwind is the Prada killer bag, known as disc 4, in 2011. "It has something to do with the long tail effect of this movie. In 2013, our Prada handbag business is still very good." I was told by a boss who was in a larger agency business in Europe.

But since last year, he has not done Prada business. "Because of its frequent price hikes, the star products are too single, and the competitors launched some new products at the end of last year and early this year, but Prada still depends on the killer Bao Zaitui. market 。 Moreover, the quality of products is often a problem, and business can not be done. He admitted.

Normally, luxury brands will increase prices one or two times a year. But last year, Prada frequently raised four prices. This may be the "quick success and instant benefit" of the listed company as it began to slow down considerably in the second half of 2013. Raising prices is undoubtedly the quickest way to raise profits and profit margins. There are not only local customers from Europe, but also a large number of consumers from emerging markets such as China.

This is why recently, in response to the price adjustment action of competitors, Prada claimed that there was no room for price increase in Europe. In the past, customers bought about 1000 pounds of leather bags but now they cost 1500-2000 pounds. Not only that, but there is not much new stuff. The attitude of customers in Europe and China soon reacted to performance: in fiscal year 2014, the heaviest handbag was the only product category that appeared to be on sale in Prada.

In the end, it was also a handbag that dragged down Prada.

"Who am I? Where do I come from?"

The frequent price hikes of handbags also highlight the embarrassment of Prada's brand positioning.

You might say that Prada may be a good thing to try to improve itself, and it is good for luxury brands to protect themselves. But with the sharp rise in price, the luxury and exclusiveness of Prada brand and the connotation and gene of luxury brand in Italy are losing. Chinese style

Frequent quality problems greatly affect the reputation of the brand, and you can often see these negative news in the media. "It's too easy to cause quality problems, not offline, that is, zippers are broken, and so on. Some of them even have problems soon after buying, which can easily affect consumers' trust in brands." The boss complained.

For luxury brands, having the reputation of products is one of the basic elements.

Moreover, since Prada listed in Hongkong, it had to disclose some previously secret information, such as the foundry factory in China. In all kinds of media, Prada is always associated with Chinese OEM. This also gradually diluted the image and connotation of the luxury brand in Italy.

In my interview in March, Italy Economic development Vice Minister Calenda has said that for high-end brands, he does not agree with the practice of factory relocation, and should pay more attention to local production. For Italy premium brands, the gold content of "Made in Italy" should be increased. It not only refers to the production of a product, but the ability to display the production of this product.

Another thing I personally felt made me sweat for the brand at that time. At the beginning of 2013, when Prada business seemed to be a sight. I visited otter, Florence, and compared to other luxury brands, Prada stores were extremely crowded and bustling.

The picture at that time was that the rushing crowd of a car coming from Chinese tourists was snapping up in Prada shop, because compared to the exclusive stores, the things here are too cheap, nylon bags are more than 2 thousand yuan, and the bags of the whole cortex are mostly around four thousand or five thousand or five thousand or six thousand yuan. It is far from the price of exclusive stores.

Most of these bags are not so-called off-season products, because you can easily tell the difference between their designs, materials and stores. Opening up another production line to produce new and relatively inexpensive products for outlets is certainly the hidden rule of this industry, but brands can control and control the quantity and speed of brand names, full and cheap products.

"This will definitely dilute the brand." The boss said.

It also waits for other luxury brands, especially those who still have brand reputation. The depreciation of the euro and outbound travel will continue to warm up. Strong brand inconsistency will produce a soft and ripple effect among the customers. Gradually, the luxury of you in their mind will be reduced.

In the face of a sharp increase in price but gradually losing brand reputation and luxury, lack of innovation Prada, customers naturally go to their competitors.

"Where am I going?"

On the ultimate question of "who am I" (brand positioning) and "where do I come from" (brand gene, connotation), Prada is lost, of course, unable to take a beautiful step. For luxury brands to move forward, look back at your history, look at your roots and see your DNA first, because this determines how you will reflect new life, reflect creativity, and show how to keep pace with the times.

Look at competitors, or dig deeper into brand genes and stories, educate and strengthen ties with Chinese consumers in a deeper culture, or advance with the times, reinventing and reproducing classic products, or new designers' topics and colors. Prada has no interest or originality in marketing, product innovation and design.

"Compared to Louis Vuitton's travel, Hermes respected traditional handwork. What's the core value of Prada's brand now? It's hard to give keywords. Compared with Chanel's and Dior's global cultural exhibition in recent years, Prada has done nothing but the news about mainland foundry is often heard, and the key luxury gene lost culture connotation is that Prada is lost and not aware of it. "People engaged in luxury industry do not hide their worries about Prada."

In his view, Prada's product price range is basically second only to top brand, but because of its weakness in brand building and market strategy, it has basically moved towards affordable luxury. But the front is the abyss and the cliff behind. In the past, the rise of the luxury brand made it unable to seize the new generation crowd while losing the main group of luxury goods.

Ironically, Prada also has to face the internal friction of its own sub line brand Miu Miu.

After taking over her dying family business, Muse and her Prada Shanzhai packed husband launched a series of surprising plans for the revival of the family business. The launch of Miu Miu is one of them. Musa is fond of this brand named after her nickname Miu Miu, perhaps to some extent, it reflects the real she. Masia has no secret that she will spend more time on the design of Miu Miu.

But it is not controversial. The main brand is some. Design The similarity of products is increasing.