On May 31, China’s No. 1 underwear brand Aimer was listed on the A-share market, rising 44.02% at the opening. As of press time, the share price was 30.23 yuan per share, with a market value of 12.092 billion yuan.
Now this company, which has occupied many “firsts” in underwear brands, is ushering in its shining moment, becoming the successor to City Beauty (2298.HK) and Huijie Holdings (002763). .SZ) and Embry Holdings (1388.HK), the fourth Chinese underwear brand listed company. Having been with the brand for 29 years, the 59-year-old founder Zhang Rongming is worth more than 7.38 billion yuan.
Facing new demands, new channels, and new cultural changes, this local brand founded in 1993 has been innovating itself.
1 Underwear is not just for sexiness
I want to understand the current underwear market To understand the challenges and opportunities, we must first understand the development history of China’s underwear industry in the past 30 years. From a business growth perspective, China’s local underwear market can be divided into two development stages.
The first stage began in the 1990s. China’s mid-to-high-end underwear brands, represented by Aimu, caught up with the booming offline business and the “from-sale” development of the underwear market after the reform and opening up. The double dividends of “zero to one” rapid growth will open offline direct stores all over the country. During this period, women’s emphasis on underwear continued to increase and their consumption power increased simultaneously, which directly promoted the growth of both the scale and profits of leading brands.
The second stage of turning point occurred around 2012. Traditional underwear brands are facing the challenge of brand solidification. A number of “comfortable” non-wired underwear brands such as Neiwai and Jiao Nei have begun to appear. Most of these new consumer brands started from e-commerce, focus on the young market, and are highly dependent on e-commerce live broadcasts and advertising. New channels such as delivery have more advantages in terms of cost performance.
The replacement of old and new underwear consumption in China has the impact of the shift of traffic from offline to online, but more importantly, the overall demand brought about by the collapse of the traditional aesthetic system and the popularity of diverse ideological trends. change.
In the past, the concepts of gathering, straightness, and “career line” created by underwear brands were mainly to emphasize an imaginary, average and perfect figure, “non-standard” ” parts were either ignored or changed. For example, A-cup bras are stuffed with thick sponges to make flat chests look fuller; similarly, women with extra-large cup sizes can only buy well-fitting bras from a handful of brands.
In the past ten years, domestic women’s consciousness has fully awakened, and their recognition of independence, comfort, and multiculturalism has increased sharply.
On the one hand, young women are increasingly participating in social and economic activities, and “comfort” has become a decisive factor. Women in the workplace no longer only like to wear clothes to highlight their “big breasts” The demand for tight-fitting products with “thin waists” is becoming increasingly finer, covering different dimensions such as being light, breathable, non-sense, and sporty. On the other hand, women have a higher level of self-confidence, and have shifted from pursuing “perfection” to In the pursuit of “authenticity”, people no longer believe that only youth, plumpness, and sexual charm are beautiful. People of different ages, skin colors, shapes, and styles have unique charms.
(Source: Visual China)
Driven by this demand, new underwear subcategories have begun to emerge in the market , such as no-wire underwear, no-size underwear, plus-size underwear, all-in-one vest-style underwear, etc.
A survey by market research organization HCR Q-group shows that in different age groups, women’s needs for underwear’s design, function, style, etc. are constantly changing. Specifically, they are no longer controlled by “sexy consciousness” when buying underwear. They choose any style among comfortable, natural, environmentally friendly, luxurious or sexy, which is more based on their own environment and occasion.
For example, as students or newcomers to the workplace, women prefer products with relaxed, energetic and rich color combinations; after becoming a professional woman, women will choose products based on the needs and needs of different occasions. Preference, choose sports bras, wire-free underwear or lace underwear; at important moments in life, she can buy an expensive luxury underwear as a reward for herself; when she becomes a new mother, the demand for functional underwear will continue rise.
This requires brands to have insight into the changes in the needs of women of different ages and social roles, and refine product design based on life stages, income levels, and psychological needs.
From a sociological perspective, women have gradually changed from objects of gaze to subjects of decision-making. As women’s social roles have changed from flat and single to diverse and rich, their right to speak and choose from the outside world has become unprecedentedly powerful.
Once upon a time, the “unisex style” thin vest bra was popular during World War I because the metal used to make the bra was saved for the war. During the great prosperity of American society in the last century The popular “Push Up Style” is designed to cater to men’s aesthetic preferences of being upright and gathered together. Now, CK, an underwear brand that used to be famous for its sexy and fashionable underwear, has put up a picture of a black transgender plus-size model as its spokesperson on a downtown billboard. This is not only to show political stance, but also to promote the aesthetic diversity and female consciousness of young people. of catering.
2 What else is needed beyond a “good story”?
Women’s awakening of self-awareness has brought about explosive demand for various categories of underwear, and new consumer underwear products haveWrapped up by the trend, this is a core issue that all brands must solve in the long term.
In the underwear industry, this question may be more specific – when “comfort” has become the core keyword of the market in recent years, should brands shift from pursuing “absolute sexiness” to The other extreme of pursuing “absolute comfort”?
In Aimu’s view, “comfort” is not a trend, it is the bottom line of an underwear, not the upper limit.
Therefore, Aimu’s attitude towards the current trend of comfortable underwear is to lead, rather than blindly cater to. True respect for consumers is to explore different needs and give them the possibility of full choices.
Women of different ages, different stages of life, different scenes, and different psychological states have different needs for underwear. Sports bras, lace underwear or non-size underwear are not antagonistic. .
In the past few years, Aimer has adhered to a multi-brand, multi-category, and omni-channel operating model, and made efforts in multiple aspects at the same time:
First, create diversified products.
In various aspects such as process technology, pattern research, material development, product innovation, etc., Aimer has always invested heavily in technology research and development, and combined with big data to conduct precise customer group positioning and product prediction analysis , to achieve continuous product innovation.
Since 1999, Aimu has successively invested in the establishment of “Beifu Aimu Underwear Research Institute” and “Shouti Aimu Sports Functional Clothing Research Center”. By the end of 2020, Aimu will It has obtained 294 patents, including 100 invention patents, and has made major technological breakthroughs in breast shaping underwear, sports smart underwear, carbon fiber flexible heating underwear, positioning implantable breathable bras, advanced processes, etc., with obvious differences. to achieve competitive advantage.
(Picture note: Aimer Sports Functional Clothing Research Center Instruments)
Second, enrich the brand matrix.
According to the differentiated needs of consumer groups, Aimu has formed a brand system at different levels, including Aimu, Mr. Aimu, Aimu Children, Lankavin, Aimeili, Huxi, and Huang. Brands such as Jin and Aimu Health have gradually expanded their categories from bras and underwear to thermal clothing, home clothes, other clothing (such as sportswear, swimwear, etc.), socks, home textiles, home accessories, etc.
It is worth mentioning that AIMER has launched an experimental product line AIMER CHUANG with a new retail concept. Conceptual products that are relatively pioneering in AIMER CHUANG are usually first tested in AIMER CHUANG, and then promoted to all channels after receiving positive feedback from the market.
Third, upgrade the retail system.
Aimu has a wide range of offline store advantages. In recent years, in order to meet consumers’ online shopping habits and balance the needs of different customer groups, Aimu has continued to increase its online investment , launching more cost-effective online products based on design and quality.
“Digitalization” is also an important direction for the upgrading of the retail system. At present, Aimu has basically achieved full digital coverage of marketing business in the marketing management system, store POS system, e-commerce system, official website platform, membership system, omni-channel O2O system, etc., allowing consumers to obtain thoughtful and personalized services at any time. services.
Fourth, multi-dimensional empowering industries.
As the leading underwear brand in China, Aimer is committed to promoting the establishment of industry standards, leading or participating in the formulation of 2 national standards, 15 industry standards and 6 group standards. The first apparel brand enterprise to be rated as the “Industrial Design Center of China’s Textile Industry” by the China Textile and Apparel Federation.
Different from new consumer underwear brands on the market that focus on one point, Aimu’s R&D system focuses more on the entire industry ecology, integrating trend research, forward-looking research and development of materials, and product innovation. The R&D and innovation system integrating design, color application, pattern research and process production can provide different innovative elements to the market every year.
In addition, many underwear brand executives have worked for Aimer, which is why Aimer is called the “Whampoa Military Academy” of the underwear industry.
4 Conclusion
“No matter the times How to change, love yourself, love the people you love, this will never change. Aimu always respects consumers from the heart, and from the logic of company operation, it should also be more penetrated and reversed from the perspective of consumers, so that Consumers drive our growth.” Regarding the brand core of Aimu, Zhang Rongming summarized it this way.
This means that the anchor point of the brand is “consumers”, rather than a concept on a certain trend. No matter what is popular in the market, only by respecting, understanding, and insight into consumers, listening to diversified needs, pushing forward product development and progress, and thinking about how to bring consumers a sense of value and gain can a brand go through different cycles and become a company that accompanies users to grow. long-lasting brand. This applies not only to the love or lingerie industry, but also to all consumer products. </p
