Analysis: The branch of China's men's clothing industry

Foreword:

Since 2006, for a number of reasons, a large number of branch companies have emerged in the men's clothing industry, so that at the time people in the industry exclaimed that the era of menswear industry channel change has come. However, a few years later, we found that those branches that had been highly hoped for by the headquarters eventually performed unsatisfactorily. Most of the losses were serious, and they were even on the verge of facing the risk of closure or low-cost transfer of shares. The author interprets Chinese men’s clothing as an industry employee. Branches of the industry are stranded.

(I) The reason for the establishment of a branch company

Warm winter in 2006, snowstorm in 2007, and financial crisis in 2008—The Chinese menswear industry has faced huge operating pressure for three consecutive years after rapid development from 1998 to 2005. The original fragile market interest channel structure and rough business management development model face huge challenges. challenge. "Flawless injuries + soft injuries, trauma + internal injuries" - The men's clothing industry, led by the concept of business casualness, lost the big-ticket country-based agency model overnight, and thus desperately established a wholly-owned provincial branch. Directly accept market challenges.

Previously, the operating characteristics of the men’s fashion brand cluster group represented by the Yipeng School was to develop the national market first by means of an agency system, and to implement it in a “nationwide, focused training” approach; mainly Chengdu, Changsha, Hangzhou and Guangzhou. The brand is to deepen the success of a certain region and then use the branch company model to develop in another region (this article is abbreviated). The former is because the provincial agents in a key area “stopped” and desperation was taken over by the company to handle the regional market. Therefore, we found that such branches have the following obvious features:

[1] The establishment of a branch company is "forced". It is passive from the beginning - "forced marriage";

[2] The establishment of a branch company's area is all an area with poor or poor market base - "invigorate";

[3] The establishment of a branch company was in a hurry and there was insufficient preparation - "impulse type";

[4] The establishment of a branch company was born under the evaluation of a project without any successful model reference or specification - "first try first";

[5] The branch company was born in the context of an upsurge in the industry bubble - "supply exceeds demand, prices deviate from value."

From the above, it can be seen that "congenital deficiency" is the main flaw in the DNA of the branch company, which also poses a great hidden danger for subsequent operations.

(B) The three major weaknesses of branch operations

Due to some of the more sensitive factors, most branches of the clothing industry appear in the name of regional logistics centers or offices, and sales showrooms or specialty stores register in the name of individuals. Regardless of the size of the brand, almost all branches have the following operational weaknesses:

1: lack of pre-standard market development and operational assessment

We know that the branch of the menswear industry is almost entirely because the original agents in the region were unable or unwilling to continue to operate and the company passively took over. The real situation is often this: A. The company owed XXX million to the company's agents. The agent has been unable to repay or reluctant to repay the cash, which led to the company's refusal to ship and thus unable to continue its operations. The company set up a branch to operate the area; B. The same brand developed well in the province, and the brand's market expansion speed and performance Seriously lagging behind its peers, the agent could not stand the pressure of the company's performance and automatically exit the market, the company set up a branch to operate the region.

In fact, because most of the brands that were transformed were monopolized by bulk wholesalers, there are several basic forms of market sales in the process of monopoly transformation: bulk distribution, fixed-point, monopoly, and sale; and because the market specializes in pre-transformation agents. The pressure is greater (marketing, sales support, team costs, and large proportion of inventory, etc.), the proportion of receivables in the sales network is getting higher and higher, bad debts are more and more frequent in bad debts, sales of old franchisees are low, and quality is high. The new franchisees not only have high costs, but also have fewer new additions. As a result, agents can only choose to give up.

In the process of handing over business with the original agents, there will inevitably be conflicts among the agents, branches and terminal distributors, mainly in the following aspects:

â—† The loss of market support for the original agent (including advertising reimbursement, props reimbursement) requires the company to bear all losses;

â—† The bad debts and other receivables of the original agents and terminal distributors shall be borne by the company;

â—† According to the number of outlets (regardless of quality), the original agents required the company to provide subsidies for market development costs at a fixed amount;

â—† The stock of the original agent (regardless of the year and quality) requires the company to collect the goods at the shipping price.

In this way, the business handover has two basic conditions: the branch takes over all the market credits and debts of the original agent, the branch bears a huge amount of bad inventory; the negotiation breaks down, the branch takes over the market, and the original agent is also in the regional market (mainly the original In the terminal dealer network, the company sold its inventory (which seriously affected the brand image)!

As a result, the establishment of a branch office will face a morbid market situation, which can be described as riddled with all kinds of market patterns, such as different distribution patterns, original end-user network dealers that are constantly deteriorating, and a seriously damaged brand image!

Before the establishment of a branch company, there was a lack of basic research on the regional market: quality and subsequent development of the original franchisee, market status, product mix and sales strategy, team formation and operation model design, input and output, cost benefits, etc., but not sufficient Demonstration and preparation—whether this branch should be established, what specific pressures exist, whether it can be overcome and reversed during the period. Therefore, I feel lucky and I hurriedly set up projects. I lost a lot of money, similar to talking about the price after killing a pig.

Although such a bad reality proves its original and deadly damage, it did not receive the basic attention in the early stage of setting up a branch company, which directly afflicted the affair for the branch company's operating prospects forever. shadow!

2: Lack of flexible and applicable operating models

The industry once had an understanding: the general agency system seems to be “capitalism”—mainly based on profit and gold standard. The branch company system is like “socialism”—mainly based on the brand and market development. Therefore, the branch company must be more than the general agent. The effect is better. Facts have proved that regardless of the general agent or branch company, it is always dominated by an invisible hand - the "black and white cat theory" is the only basis for testing the market.

Undoubtedly, the branch company has a relatively complete team configuration, has a relatively "professional" team division, has a more standardized process design, has an unparalleled resource allocation of agents, including commodities, policies and support efforts, but in the region Business agents and resources, rapid decision-making/execution, and team leaders' personal competencies are even better than those of agents. As a result, the branch companies appear to be “formula” when they take advantage of business opportunities. In dealing with problems, the branch companies appear to be “dogmatic”. — In the case where the brand is not particularly strong, we found that the “small but complete” spokesmen always lag behind the market, with poor performance and even deteriorating performance.

The specific differences are as follows:

category

Branch offices

Agents

Marketing plan

Conceptualization, empty generalization, not suitable for the market

Familiar with the market, targeted

Operation process

Specification, tedious

Simple and efficient

team

Departments and positions are available, people are overwhelmed

A special multi-function, strong execution

Supervisor

Partial Division, weak comprehensive ability, poor interest

Comprehensive, strong personality, good sense of interests

Business resources

lack of

widely

Commodity buyer

Poor, non-dominant

Strong, completely autonomous

Market instruments

single

rich

Sales policy

rigid

flexible

management

Institutional, more rigid, less human

Family style, humanity

decision making

Slow - large approving errors

Fast, accurate - on-site solution

effectiveness

low

high

Operating expenses

high

low

“Highly centralized authority” is the organizational attribute of the Chinese nation—in fact both the headquarters executives who are “in charge of marketing”, or the heads of the headquarters, are not familiar with the specific business features in the region, which easily leads to subjective judgment errors; “Finance "Management as a constitution" is the core of branch management. The whole set of management model established here is more rigorous. It can prevent the emergence of many dark sides. However, before facing complex and diverse market changes, it appears to be "overkill," and is more than rigid and flexible. From the operation and management system, it led to the biggest flaw of the branch company's operating model, which directly affected the regional performance.

3: Lack of business operations team

Regardless of the size, the branch company team is basically equipped with the following (according to the amount of business volume increase or decrease, jobs and jobs basically unchanged) and use this analysis.

Branch team structure and functions

Posts & Positions

main duty

Number of people

Supervisor

Employee

Manager (General Manager)

Full responsibility for branch operations

1

Assistant Manager (Assistant)

Comprehensive assistance to managers, focusing on internal control or market division

1

Sales Manager

Assisting the manager in full responsibility for sales and logistics

1

Sales office

Assist sales manager in daily work

1

Marketing Manager

Market joining and franchising services

1

Marketing Specialist

Franchise expansion and franchise franchise management

1-3

Supervision

Terminal Display, Training, Shop Operations and Promotion Services

1

Direct management

Responsible for branch company's direct-operated shop management

1

Warehouse management

Responsible for warehousing, custody, receipt and distribution of goods and related accounts

1

Tallyman

Assisted Warehouse Management

1 - 2

Cashier

Cash receipt expenses, flow accounting, financial accounting

1

accounting

Financial Account and Branch Financial Management

1

â– â– â–  Branch Manager

"The speed of the train runs fast, depends on the front belt" - The branch manager acts as the locomotive of the branch company team, and plays a decisive role in the overall operating performance of the branch company. "A soldier will bear a bear" - the branch manager's Capability, to a certain extent, directed the success or failure of the branch office.

The branch manager basically comes from three forms: the chairman's letter (infant), market/regional manager (partial), and the branch manager/coordination (vase) of the same brand.

As the princes of the power to hold hands, when the head office is looking for a branch manager, the first element generally takes into account loyalty and security, and the ability ranks next—a team poppy that rejects the mouse type and is superior in ability. The basic characteristics of this type of candidate are not familiar with the business, and it can even be said to be an amateur—often doing good things badly so that when they are alone in the region, not only can the business not be effectively expanded, but it also leads to a drastic drop in the overall team level (serious brain drain). The loss of the original high-quality customers (the lack of confidence of customers) has severely reduced the market. This type of person is generally a resident of the headquarters, or a long time in the company, or is a relative of the chairman of the board of directors and is highly trusted. This type of branch manager is summarized as: business baby type.

Branch managers from the market expansion and management upgrades accounted for the largest proportion. Their advantage is that they are well-versed in the market, can accurately grasp the customer's mentality, and have strong ability to expand new franchisees, with some regional resources. Their weaknesses are even more pronounced – single leg advancement, relatively weak ability for overall planning, market structure and layout, upgrading of old franchisees, organization and ordering of goods, sales management, team management, and financial management. Managers of various types of collaboration must be able to stand alone, otherwise overall performance will remain low and overall business breakthroughs will be difficult. This type of candidate generally has experience and experience in the headquarters responsible for the regional market. The company has a better understanding of individuals and relative trust. This type of branch manager is summarized as:

There are not many candidates who have peer experience. One is that these people are less likely to change jobs. The other is that after the former company resigned, most of them chose to start a business or develop other projects. Their biggest advantage is to have branch operations experience, or to have rich market resources in the region. However, the facts are not satisfactory. Why? The advantages of this type of branch manager are also shortcomings—experienced, lack of passion, unaccustomed to the new company’s culture and management, weak sense of brand identity, and a psychological gap in the rights space, which is not attentive, and the resource advantage cannot be met at half past half. The smooth transition to successful performance, or the dislocation of resources, is in stark contrast to the ambitious ambitions of the pre-employment and the prevailing expectations. This type of person generally enters the branch with a fixed pattern and thinking. Earn countless flowers and applause in the early days. I hope to be big and disappointment is even greater. This type of branch manager is summarized as: dream vase type

In the branch of China's menswear industry, there are fewer composite talents across the market, promotion, merchandise, sales, management, planning, and implementation. Most of them have defects in skills and mentality of one kind or another, resulting in the human structure and fineness of the branch company team. The deficiencies of gas and fighting power are not strong, which affects the performance of branch companies that plan and develop in units of the year.

â– â– â–  Compensation Benefits

Base salary

bonus

welfare

market

Development Award

Sales Award

Annual bonus

Annual performance

Paid vacation

Vocational training and planning

Promotion

Low

ordinary

no

January salary

Draw a hunger

less

no

irregular

Branches from scratch, the team's compensation and benefits gradually progress from the original mode of operation to performance appraisal, this is a major trend, but the current overall situation is not optimistic.

As mentioned in the above table, both the material and spiritual levels of the branch company’s team’s revenues are low. There is basically no national legal labor contract signed, let alone what benefits and personal development, and there is no comparative advantage—this not only hinders excellence. The entry of talent, but also affect the efficiency of the existing team.

The branch company team is always plagued by basic problems from top to bottom: When can I be removed from office, how can my income be ensured and promoted, and where is my way out? - The long-term stability of material income and development protection is a major problem that needs to be solved urgently!

The most popular solution to this problem is the use of performance appraisal management tools. The company's managers often make mistakes when they use this tool. As a management "imported product", the performance appraisal system is easy to ignore several basic considerations in the design: the premise of the appraisal is that it already has a relatively complete personal basic guarantee; the formulation of appraisal standards must be relatively quantified and reasonable; the purpose of the appraisal is Use incentives to promote the team to complete the company's development goals; assessment of the formulation, signing must have a legal effect; assessment of the implementation can not be discounted, with humanity.

As a traditional manufacturing industry, the garment industry has been operating at low labor costs. However, the promulgation and promotion of the new "Labor Law" will gradually change this situation. The proportion of highly educated personnel in the team is increasing (relative to the past). The design and implementation of the normative performance system is a great psychological and technical challenge for current business owners of menswear companies, otherwise it will directly affect the sustainability of the team.

Team professionalism, team compensation and benefits, and team performance appraisal—is not the relationship between egg chickens or chickens and chickens. It’s a question of the core guarantee of the branch’s development. If business owners and professional people can't bravely face and then solve the problem in a fair, just, and open manner, the construction and development of career-type professional teams will be on paper, and how will the development of branch companies be guaranteed?

The three major weaknesses of the branch office seem to be congenital poliomyelitis, which fundamentally constrains the development of the branch office and makes it become the dwarf of the regional marketing of the country in the system.

BindCommentForm(75084);

GetComment(0,75084,1);