Rebuilding The Image Of Putian Shoes Should Start With Brand Culture

Can you buy Putian shoes? With the trademark of Putian shoes?

On March 29, Putian Footwear Association announced that the collective trademark of "Putian shoes" had been approved and registered by the State Intellectual Property Office, and Putian famous brand management company, a state-owned enterprise, was responsible for marketing and promotion.

As early as November last year, the Secretary General of Putian shoes Association said that "Putian shoes" collective trademark is a regional brand. The association will formulate relevant access standards and the government will endorse it. Only enterprises that meet the standards in terms of product materials and prices can use this trademark. The relevant departments of Putian City also said that they will resolutely crack down on a small number of small workshops that do not create their own brands and do not apply for free use of the public brand "Putian shoes".

The idea is beautiful. The problem is, for different groups of people, Putian shoes mean a completely different image. Registration of a trademark does not represent the rise of a brand. As for the 4000 shoe enterprises in Putian City, they share the same name of "Putian shoes". They have a win-win cooperation and fierce competition. However, some shoe enterprises under the shadow are greedy for blood.

01 the blood sucking man in the night

At 6:00 p.m., the Anfu community in Putian has the appearance before the boiling water, and the traffic and motorcycle are gradually increasing. Many shops with closed doors in the daytime begin to have one or two people come out and look around the door. When it gets dark, the light boxes of many shops will be on. Most of them are written with words like "Carter, coconut, MaiKun and Sanye Zun". The boss's wechat or telephone number is directly printed on the light box.

At one or two o'clock in the morning, the community was out of the ordinary. Some people were standing on the first floor to solicit customers. The sound of electric vehicles was endless. There were also couriers shuttling among them. They pushed the shoe boxes piled high with small carts into a nearby alley and were busy checking and packing.

For "toe", this is heaven and hell.

"Sneakerhead" is an imported word. The English word "sneakerhead" refers to people with shoes in their heads, that is, those who love sneakers and their culture. In their eyes, the value of a good pair of shoes is unlimited. The toe is originally a group of subculture lovers, but because of the popularity of social media, buying and drying shoes has gradually become a kind of social capital. Many young people rush in and claim to be the toe caps, spending a lot of money just to buy a pair of good shoes recognized by the circle, or, to be exact, famous brand shoes with the blessing of brands, stars and stories.

The business of Anfu district is supported by these shoes all over the world.

It is said that 30% of the world's Nike shoes are "high imitation shoes" in Putian, that is, fake shoes. On how to identify these fake shoes, there is a very ironic statement in the shoe circle: if a pair of shoes has not been opened for a year, it is a fake.

These statements show the development of high imitation shoes Market in Putian, but also reveal a fact that fake shoes are not quality, but brand.

There are clear grades in Putian high imitation shoes. There are so-called "factory shoes", that is, the final list of genuine shoes for the factory, and "cut shoes", which are assembled by using the raw materials from the original factory. In wechat business or purchasing on behalf of others, they are all top-grade products, called "Chunyuan". It is difficult to identify whether the shoes are genuine or not without careful inspection. In addition, there are several generations of people operating, using peripheral materials to achieve the ultimate super high imitation, and some are just appearance goods, the appearance is very similar, people who know the industry can see it at a glance.

The official price of yeezy boost 350 V2 is about 1800 yuan, which can be fried to 500 Euro abroad, but Putian high imitation shoes can be won for 500 yuan

Putian high imitation shoes can do so lifelike, by no means in a day.

In the 1980s, Putian was born a number of high imitation shoes enterprises, or small workshops. They live by regular OEM factories. The boss or senior staff often come out of these OEM factories. Whenever there is a new style of genuine shoes, they bribe the factory workers to steal the drawings or sample shoes, and then find someone who knows how to take apart each part to imitate. In the circle, it is called "Deconstruction".

At the beginning, the technology of genuine shoes was very difficult for high imitation manufacturers, so even after the deconstruction was completed, the fake shoes could be clearly identified. After entering 2000, the high imitation business people study hard, the simulation degree increases rapidly. Up to now, some businesses can do without drawings, just need a trailer, can make high imitation shoes before the authentic factory.

It's not the core technology that the high imitation merchants have mastered, but the core technology of these genuine shoes has not kept pace with the times for a long time after they were released.

Take Nike, a high imitation shoe disaster area, as an example. Its core air cushion technology is divided into three stages: air max, Air Zoom and shox. Shox has been basically abandoned because of its excellent soles. At present, air max and Air Zoom, the most widely used ones, were born in the 1990s. For high copy businesses, these technologies are no secret for so many years. Since the core technology has no role of confidentiality, other parts are no exception.

As early as 2007, Putian high imitation shoes with the degree of simulation in the world brush a sense of existence. The police of China and the United States jointly enforced the law, using undercover special police and eavesdropping equipment, and seized 291699 pairs of fake Nike shoes from warehouses in Brooklyn, USA. when the police found experts to identify whether they were fake or smuggled real goods, experts said it was difficult to distinguish them. Finally, only through the customs declaration documents that this is a batch of fake goods. If the counterfeit goods are in circulation, the market price will exceed 31 million US dollars (about 236 million yuan).

In Putian's high imitation industry chain, there is a popular saying: "let the whole world be able to afford famous brands". High imitation shoes practitioners with this "great" vision are called "Ah Mao" and "fake" shoes.

A Mao's initial sales battlefield was Google, and their "foreign trade shoes" constituted the main body of the above-mentioned cases. When Google started to take the initiative to crack down on counterfeit goods, they learned to publicize their low-cost and high-quality products on social media and Amazon. Therefore, speaking English, building websites, opening PayPal accounts and mastering the latest news of NBA stars are their necessary skills.

After the rise of domestic e-commerce, a Mao people learned to advance in two lines. In Putian, there was once a large number of Taobao training courses in private houses. They mastered the rules of the platform and sold high imitation shoes to the whole country in the most attractive language. After the rise of wechat business, a qualified Amao must have seven or eight mobile phones in his hand, and the number of wechat friends on each mobile phone has reached the upper limit. To do a good sales of Amao, not only need to communicate with high imitation manufacturers, but also there are numerous "agents" below to help attract new customers across the country.

Nowadays, the best way to identify a pair of Putian high imitation shoes is not to look at the shoes themselves, but to look at the steel seal, label and factory code on the shoe box, whether it is on redit or the most famous shoe identification app in China. These are the only things that are temporarily out of the circle of ability of the Maoists.

They know that every pair of shoes they sell is fake, but the money they earn is real.

02 OEM factory unable to cry

If a toe cap spends a lot of money on a so-called genuine app to buy a pair of sneakers, but finds that the delivery place is Putian, should he question whether this is a fake?

No, the shoes could be real.

A cold knowledge is that Putian has many OEM factories of famous brand shoe manufacturers at home and abroad, such as Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and baleshijia, which are all located in Putian. Even Jinjiang City next door, as the most concentrated area of famous sports shoes and clothing brands in China, many brands choose Putian OEM for OEM processing.

The most powerful pillar of Putian high imitation shoes is the huge scale of Putian regular factory.

Putian shoemaking industry was very developed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Because of the numerous hills and barren farmland, people could only engage in handicraft industry in order to fill their stomachs. Therefore, Putian has a large number of skilled shoemaking workers for a long time. After the reform and opening up, because they are located on the West Bank of the Taiwan Strait, Putian and Jinjiang have simultaneously accepted a large number of OEM orders brought by Taiwan businessmen. That is to say, since then, the two cities have embarked on different development paths.

Putian shoe enterprises are good at hard work.

As early as 1988, in order to meet the requirements of customers, Guo Rong, director of Putian shoe leather factory, and his employees raised 8.31 million yuan to set up a new production line. In a short period of half a year, he produced 600000 pairs of Adidas and Reebok sports shoes. Some businessmen come to the factory with only shoe samples and photos, and even speak only orally. Within a few hours, Guo Rong can quote the cost and price of shoe samples.

Because of Guo Rong's leading effect, Putian shoes and leather factory as the center, radiated numerous satellite factories in surrounding towns and rural areas. The lucky ones among these satellite factories grew into large-scale regular OEM factories such as Lifeng and Huafeng. Because these regular OEM factories have been consistent for many years, and brand manufacturers are also rooted in Putian. This is the only way for a Maoren who haunts in the dark and can always contact the first-hand information of genuine shoes.

Jinjiang shoe enterprises looked up when OEM, so they had a different choice.

In 1997, in the Asian financial crisis, the foreign trade shoe industry suffered heavy losses, many factories had no work to open and lost money all day. Putian shoe enterprises choose to carry the past, but Jinjiang shoe enterprises realize that if they only rely on overseas orders, such things will happen again sooner or later. What's more, OEM can earn too little money.

Therefore, in 1999, Jinjiang suddenly emerged dozens of sports brands. Anta is determined to improve brand awareness in this year. In fact, as early as 1994, Anta began to sell shoes under the trademark "Anta", but the sales scope was always limited. In 1999, Ding Shizhong spent 10 million yuan to advertise. He signed up with Kong Linghui to broadcast an advertisement on CCTV. The sentence "I choose, I like" is popular all over the country. After that, other shoe enterprises in Jinjiang, such as 361 degree, special step, peak, etc., all followed this path and made a good reputation in the whole country. It was the golden age of TV advertising, and Jinjiang shoe enterprises got on this high-speed train.

After 2000, Jinjiang shoe enterprises have changed their business to do their own brands, and the original OEM orders of Jinjiang brand flowed into Putian.

At that time, it seemed that this was a win-win business: Jinjiang shoes enterprises had a reputation, Putian shoes enterprises got substantial benefits. However, in the past ten or twenty years, many of the shoe companies in Jinjiang, which were originally private brands, have died. Those who survived are now living well in the tide of domestic goods. Some shoe companies have even grown up to buy world famous brands in reverse. Putian shoes, of course, are famous all over the world, but this name is the "bad name" of high imitation shoes.

What about those Putian shoe enterprises who are always conscientious to do OEM?

A pair of famous brand shoes, the cost may be 80 yuan, the OEM can get 8 yuan at most, but if it is well packaged and sold abroad, some people will rush to buy it for 800 dollars. In response to the strict inspection of brand manufacturers, the OEM factory should also deal with the all pervasive "sneak attack" of Putian amateurs. With the rise of domestic labor costs, brand companies have targeted the demographic dividend of Southeast Asia, and have transferred to Vietnam and other places. Under the attack inside and outside, the days of the regular OEM factories in Putian are really not easy.

Brand may not be the only way out, but from the comparison of Jinjiang and Putian shoe enterprises for 20 years, it is the most promising way. Can't Putian people think of this? No, even Guo Rong, the director of Putian shoe and leather factory with only a fourth grade primary school culture, knows that the profit of selling brand goods is high, so he is so keen on OEM for brands. But the problem is that you have to bear a huge risk of profit and loss when you build your own brand. Life and death are only in the front line. As long as you have orders and continue to do the "processing with supplied materials" business, you can live for a long time.

These are just two kinds of different business thinking, outsiders have no way to discern. We have seen the different development trends of the two "shoe cities", but we can not go back to the past and take the risks of transformation for any Putian shoe enterprise in the 1990s. They just chose the best way to survive that they could see at that time.

03 who can reshape Putian shoes

Go back to the present.

Putian shoes Association released the news that the trademark registration of "Putian shoes" was approved. At the same time, another information was revealed: under the operation of Putian famous brand management Co., Ltd., a state-owned enterprise, "Putian shoes" has opened a flagship store in Jingdong in the form of a collective brand, and has opened an offline experience store in Meizhou Island international tourism scenic spot, a national 5A level scenic spot.

At present, when searching for "Putian shoes flagship store" in Jingdong, we can see that the store is in operation, and 74000 people are paying attention to it. Among them, a pair of sports shoes with the brand of "play find" have the highest sales volume with the price of 488 yuan. However, when searching for "Putian shoes flagship store" on Taobao, the results are still obvious high imitation shoes links such as "Putian Chunyuan" and "genuine one-on-one coconut shoes".

The search results of e-commerce platform are Jingdong on the left and Taobao on the right

The difference between the two search results may be that Putian famous brand management Co., Ltd. did not have time to operate uniformly in the whole network. But it also shows that in the era of e-commerce, Putian high imitation shoes have tenacious vitality. In addition to the above-mentioned mainstream e-commerce platforms, there are also a large number of Amao who are actively promoting Putian high imitation shoes on social media. Before they really know Putian shoes, they have been fascinated by a large number of Putian high imitation shoes.

Traut, the father of positioning, once proposed the concept of "attached positioning", which means to determine its own market position by comparing it with competitive brands. "Putian shoes" collective brand positioning itself as "China's good shoes, made in Putian". To some extent, it is just using "comparison positioning" to distinguish itself from Putian high imitation shoes.

However, trout also pointed out that, generally speaking, only by comparing with the well-known and well-known brands, can they take advantage of the situation to raise their own value. For those who understand the inside story, there is a clear distinction between Putian genuine shoes and Putian high imitation shoes, but for ordinary consumers, it takes time and energy to distinguish them. The most direct impression is that they share the name of Putian shoes.

In the TV series "Wu Lin Wai Zhuan", Lu Xiucai asks Ji Wuming who are you? Ji Wuming? no It's just a name, a code name. You can call Ji Wuming or I can call Ji Wuming. They can all take this code off. Who are you?

Putian shoes are also just a code name, but the code has been stained by high imitation shoes.

To change the perception of the outside world, one trademark is not enough, one association is not enough, and one year and two years' efforts are not enough. It may take another watershed and another 20 years to build Putian shoes into the brand of Putian shoes, which has both brand power and high quality.

The most important thing is that we must really put into action, otherwise the shoe enterprises with productivity and innovation will one day be submerged in the shadow of a maomen. In that way, Putian shoes will finally "kill" Putian shoes.