American Clothing Giant GAP "Came Late" (1)

[Yang Deming is silent about the reason why GAP has not entered China for more than ten years. But according to public data, GAP has not been tranquil for ten years.]

If you haven't heard of GAP, the No. 1 clothing brand in the US retail industry, it doesn't matter. At least you have heard of Lewinsky and her famous blue skirt.

When the sex scandal of former US President Bill Clinton spread all over the world, the blue GAP skirt that Lewinsky showed to the public as evidence made people talk about it. At that time, GAP's reputation was very popular. Everyone who passed or entered the GAP store would run in to see if there were blue GAP skirts. Some people even call Clinton's sex scandal "GAP gate incident".

For brand experts, this seems to be a good thing for the popularity of GAP, but the reputation may be compromised.

People are not only concerned about gossip, but also about its price. At the GAP store in the United States, the lowest price of this skirt is less than $10.

Yes, the parity and universality of GAP can be seen from this. It is very similar to the pricing range of H&M from Sweden, ZARA from Spain, and Uniqlo from Japan. Because of this, some people call GAP as the“ McDonald's ”。

Now, the world fashion giant, which has more than 4200 chain stores in the world, is finally "late". Recently, Yang Deming, president of GAP China, told China Business News that "GAP expects to open four stores in China by the end of 2010, including two in Beijing and two in Shanghai, each covering an area of 1100~1800 square meters. At the same time, online sales follow up synchronously. "

Compared with its global rivals ZARA, H&M and Uniqlo, GAP entered China at least three years later. Can it catch up in three years?

GAP's philosophy of success

In fact, GAP is the most famous commodity Not a blue skirt, but jeans.

In 1969, when Lao Fisher, the founder of GAP, was in a fashion shop in California, the United States, selecting jeans that were suitable for him, he could not find a suitable pair of pants. Driven by this power, when Lao Fisher and his wife created GAP.

GAP's first store was not a great success. When Lao Fisher and his wife's first store used Levi's jeans (its own jeans brand was founded in 1974, and its chain stores sold jeans produced by Levi's in 1991 for the last time) and tapes to sell together, the result was not ideal. It was not until the opening of the second store of GAP that Lao Fisher focused on young people and emphasized a young shopping atmosphere. The commodities sold include round neck T-shirts, short and lean cotton tops, jeans, etc.

The most classic design of GAP is still the jeans series. "The point is that GAP does not only sell jeans, many of them are well matched with clothes." Yang Deming said. This new way of sales made GAP quickly become famous in the United States. In the 1980s and 1990s, GAP developed rapidly, and its series of brands such as GAP, OldNavy, and GAPkid were listed one after another.

Peg Andersel, the author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, said in the book that the winner of modern retail is the person who lets customers spend the least effort on shopping. For businesses, your convenience is their business opportunity - why not buy a dress in the same color to match the printed vest you like? Peg Andersel also said: "70% of the things we bought were actually not intended to buy at the beginning.

This is GAP Where they are best at, shop assistants open their arms to encourage customers to touch and try. For men, women, household, leisure, sports, children's and infants' clothing and accessories, GAP has made great efforts to decorate the store. Everything has been arranged in advance: various sizes have been sorted out, and the matching clothes have also been displayed. "Few people here want to buy clothes but can't buy them. Even if there is no clothes in the store, they can still find them online." Yang Deming said, "A large part of the success of GAP is due to the attention paid to customers. For example, the store is set to open at 9 o'clock, but after 8 o'clock there are people waiting in line. The way of GAP is to open the store at 8 o'clock in advance as soon as this situation is found."

GAP also uses RFID tracking system to effectively manage sales terminals. The label of every GAP dress is tracked by the system, no matter whether the dress is placed in the packing box of the warehouse or on the shelf of the mall. As long as the customer has demand, the salesperson can immediately tell the customer how many colors are available for the style they want through the portable code reader, which avoids the time spent in traditional manual searching and the loss of customers. According to the statistics of relevant departments, GAP's sales have increased by 20% since it applied RFID technology to effectively track and manage clothing.

In addition, GAP is also an expert in marketing. For more than 40 years, GAP has invited various Hollywood stars, rock stars, and popular TV stars to endorse GAP products. There are countless influential marketing events. In recent years, the most influential one is the store in Vancouver, Canada. For a period of time, all devices in the store have been reversed, making people feel that they are being reversed.

The inverted items include the store logo, window models, four display cases, hundreds of T-shirts, a hot dog car and three cars parked at the door.

"We produce in more than 40 countries and have more than 300 management rules. We also have strict control over costs and procedures." It is for these various reasons that GAP has grown from one store to more than 4000 stores worldwide in more than 40 years. In the United States alone, there are as many as 3000 stores, and the sales amount last year was 15 billion dollars.