Chinese fashion in the European market

Major project Title: Fashionpedia for start-up Tutor: Bianka Renn Co-tutor: Silvia Zancarli Fashion Marketing & Communication Lev.6 Linqian Liu

AKNOWLEDGEMENT 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Chinese fashion industry overview 1.2 Internationalization as the future growth 1.3 Successful internationalized brand case studies 1.3.1 Xiatzy Chen 1.3.2 Jiang Nan Bu Yi 1.3.3 Shang Xia 1.4 The need of a guideline 1.5 The creation of the manual book

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2 MARKET ANALYSIS 2.1 Target group: Chinese entrepreneurs 2.2 Case studies of potential customers: 2.2.1 Chow Tai Fook 2.2.2 Dong Liang 2.3 Target group: International students studing in EU 2.4 Competition analysis 2.5 Summary 3 FASHIONPEDIA FOR START UP 3.1 Product 3.2 Place 3.3 Promotion 3.4 Price 4 THE MANUAL BOOK LAYOUT 4.1 The manual book content 5 BUSINESS OVERVIEW 5.1 The business model canvas 5.2 Project launch 5.3 Sales Forecast and revenue CONCLUSION AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS APPENDIX The manual book BIBLIOGRAPHY

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AKNOWLEDGEMENT

“一日为师 终生为父”a Chinese proverb that means “Even if someone is your teacher for one day, you should regard him or her like your parents for the rest of your life”. Even if I am now at the end of my academic study and I might not see my professors again, but you will always remain as the dearest persons of my life.

Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis advisors Ms. Bianka Renn, Ms. Silvia Zancarli and Mr. Riccardo Conti for the continuous support of my study and research. I thank you for the patience and immense knowledge in the past three years as the main subject professors. I benefited a lot from your lectures.

Besides my advisors, I would like to thank Mr. Marco Ricchetti for your immense support, your precious advices and your help in connecting with industry professionals for the interviews. My sincere thanks also goes to Ms. Manuela Sacco, who has always been very encouraging to me, to Mr. Lorenzo Giordano for the technical support on business plan.

Getting through my dissertation required more than academic support, and I have many external companies and people to thank, in particular Showroom Studiozeta.org for the possibility given to me to practice the theoretical knowledge acquired at university into the real life scenario.

Most importantly, none of this could have happened without the support of my family. I thank you for your unconditional love and encouragement.

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INTRODUCTION

After experiencing decades of years as a manufacturer for western fashion brands, local Chinese enterprises has acquired all the skills and experiences to create their own brand for the domestic market. With globalization and easy to trade cross boarding, new opportunities are appeared for these oriental fashion giants. Starting analysing the current environment situation and then deep researching on the past history of this country and its fashion industry, I found out that the Chinese fashion industry has come to a time that it should debut itself into a global stage.

If in the past it has always been hardworking in the darkness of the backstage producing items for other labels. Now it has arrived the time to debut itself with its own brand label on the global fashion scene. The thesis topic comes to my mind in my second year in Milan, when I was visiting international fashion trade fairs. In the already finished garment or accessory trade fairs like White, Milano PAP, Mi Cam, Mi Pel, most of the exhibitors are Italian and French, but there were a great number of Chinese buyers to make order or just visitors in the fairs to take some inspirations. I started to reason why the Chinese creativity and design are not present in these international platforms, why only Made in Italy or Made in French can be considered as luxury. Every day I read news about brands going to China, opening new flagship store in Shanghai or in Beijing. I started to think opposite, how a Chinese fashion brand can be successful in expanding its business in western countries, especially for a high-end brand.

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1.1 The Chinese fashion industry overview From the 1980s when China has opened its door for importation and exportation and joined to the World Trade Organization, it has immediately become world’s biggest manufacturer. In these decades of years Chinese workers has learned the knowhow of making these products, they became expertise as shoemaker, bag maker, garment sewer, and so forth. Most of the western brands are produced in China because of the low cost production and the incredible speed of delivery.

Learning from their western employer companies, ambitious Chinese entrepreneurs started to use their available resources and experienced workers to build up their own brands, by producing items under their own labels. Obviously the first attempt is always to start in a market that they know best, the Chinese domestic market[Zhao Jianhua, 2013].

Starting to operate only in one single city to a region and then expanding the business all over the country, they have successfully became a nationally well-known companies with a considerable market share. Year after year the business has grown bigger, and the position in the market has became stable, but the question is : Are there any room left for further growth and development?

Today the market competitiveness is extremely high, talking only the menswear market in Mainland China for example, there are more than 800 menswear brands, among them 600 are domestic market brands and 200 foreign brands [Jingdaily.com, 2014]. If a brand stop to act, stop to think and develop new ideas, it would be difficult to stay in the same position and maintain their market share. They would be soon defeated and replaced by others. So a company should never be satisfied about current achievement, but they have always go farther, go beyond.

In the other edge of the industry, there are young and talented designers that are emerging from the Chinese fashion scene. They are freshly graduated from fashion and art institutions or have few year of experience in the field, but they preferred to work by themselves creating their own fashion houses.

They are creative, open minded, young and ambitious. Entering western market, getting the world recognition by participating global fashion week has always been established as a benchmark of success [Jingdaily.com, 2014]

1.2 Internationalization as the future growth What can be the possible solution or further development for Chinese brand if they already have reached the peak of their business in the domestic market? By analysing the current fashion industry situation, I discovered that visionary entrepreneurs see their opportunity abroad. It was started in 1990s when the first Taiwan-Chinese designer Shiatzi Chen who started her business only as a manufacturer, opened a store under her own label in Paris. Chen has successfully entered in the western market by showing her impeccable outfits that is a union of the Western craftsmanship and Eastern inner soul.

She is also the very first Chinese who became a member of Federation Francais de la Couture [Shiatzychen.com, 2014]. JNBY a well-known mainland contemporary Chinese designer brand, after having established a chain of stores all over the Mainland China territory, the brand has started its international expansion first into North American’s market, like Canada and USA and then in Europe. From 2004 till today, 41 JNBY stores are opened outside of China [Jnby.com,2014].

The internationalization that is happening not only in the luxury industry, even in the mass market brands like Bosideng, the bestseller of down jacket in China and the main manufacturer of Moncler, has stated its international expansion in USA by opening stores in New York and in Europe by opening stores in London. Bosideng is now also in talk with local retailers about the inclusion of Bosideng in the department stores and malls in England [Jingdaily.com, 2014].

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1.3 Successfully internationalized brand case studies Here below are reported some of the most representative Chinese brands that are successfully internationalized in the western market. They proved Made-in-China can be considered as luxury too, Chinese brands can be accepted and appreciated by the western consumers. By deep analysing each case study i found a very important common feature : the product reflects the eastern culture, the Chinese tradition, the unique characteristics that in the western countries does not exist. For example Jade, Zitan wood, special silk fabric, these very representative Chinese materials are used in the collection, ink painting, Zen philosophy, the Buddhism religion are very often taken as part of the inspiration of the collection. This means that if a Chinese fashion brands want to compete in the western luxury market with Made-in-Italy or Made-in-France, they must have some distinctive characteristics that make them outstanding and different among other competitors. And most them use the strong side of the country, the very symbolic elements, the traditional culture and representative materials.

1.3.1 Shiatzy Chen Shiatzi Chen is a Taiwan-Chinese apparel company founded in 1978 by the Designer Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia (aka Shiatzy Chen). At that time the company’s core business was manufacturing knitwear and ready to wear collections for the international market like United States and Japan. At beginning of 1990s, with international economies change and market demand, Shiatzy Chen decided to start market its own brand. In 1990 an atelier was established in Paris with aim to improve its technical competence and pattern making. She first joined in Taipei fashion show, then expanding her business quickly in Asia by participate fashion exhibition in South Korean and Asia designer show in Singapore. In 2001 the first Shiatzy Chen Paris store was open, it was the first Taiwan-Chinese brand name in the European market. The most astonishing success of the brand was not only Shiatzy Chen was presenting her collections during the Paris Fashion Week from 2008 but she became an official member of Federation Francais de la Couture in 2010 as well [Shiatzychen.com, 2014].

Fashion is not merely a trend but the reflection of the inner self and everlasting tastes. -Shiatzy Chen There exists a Zen’s philosophy behind Xiatzy Chen’s company. “初衷” a poetical Chinese phrase that means “ original intention” is printed on each label and sewn into the garments, echoing the brand’s philosophy and sharing it with its customers or believers [shiatzychen.com, 2014]. The success of Shiatzy Chen in the western market is due to many reasons. First of all, the designer herself, her good manner and behaviour has conquered the world media. She launched many charity and found raising programs for children and women. Her honesty and kind heart are transformed the transparency of production and good quality of the product. Another feature of Shiatzy Chen’s brand is that she inspires a lot from the traditional Chinese ink painting and calligraphy. The inner soul of East and the craftsmanship of the West have together built her collections. She is one of those few designers that understood the country of origin issue or the Made-in has no importance when we are selling not anymore just a simple product, but the culture. Shiatzi Chen is selling the Chinese tradition and culture, not simply a garment.

Elements that drives the companies’ success: Previous relationship with international market as manufacturer; Strong company’s culture (Zen philosophy); Sustainable (Benefit the local community, charity and found raising programs); Strong in representing the country’s best side and representative elements into its products (The ink painting and Chinese calligraphy); Vertically integrated company.

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[Alexandra Utzmann, 2014]

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1.3.2 Shang Xia Shang Xia is the very first Chinese lifestyle brand that offers a wide range of product categories from apparel clothing, teaware, homeware, furniture to Jewellery. It is a very contemporary brand founded in 2008 by Ms. Jiang Qiong Er, and she defines that Shang Xia is a medium created to promote the Chinese fine craftsmanship to the world [Jingdaily.com, 2011].

Differ from other big Chinese companies, Shang Xia has not started as a manufacturing company and thus has not a strong financial base as JNBY or Xiatzi Chen. Before opening a store in Paris, Shang Xia has only two stores in the whole China, one in Shanghai and one in Beijing. It was only a small business targeted to a very small clientele that are cultivated and understand the value of these precious material and fine craftsmanship. Thanks to Hermès, this French luxury giant has perceived the potentiality of Shang Xia and has incorporated the brand into its own portfolio. However the company’s headquarter is still in Shanghai, the artistic director and CEO still remains Jiang Qiong Er, the founder of the brand [Red-luxury.com, 2013]. The other fact that links Shang Xia with Hermes is that also Shang Xia has an icon product, the Egg-shape teaware, covered with bamboo weaving. Because of the few artisans that are able to make it and the time of production is long, due to this reasons there is a two years long list in order to have these Egg-shape teaware at home, it is just like Hermès’ Kelly bag [Shangxia.com, 2014].

What is unique of the brand is that Jiang Qiong Er has gathered together these artisans from all over the China in order to make alive these lost ancient techniques and incorporate them into contemporary items. For furniture and jewellery she uses mainly the precious Chinese materials like Jade and Zitan Wood. In apparel she usually likes to explore new and special materials found from small villages in the deep of the country. Shang Xia does not participate any fashion show, but the presentation of the collections is shown through cultural exhibitions. Because Shang Xia’s product has not seasonality, it not about fashion, it is classic and timeless. It takes the inspiration from the Ming dynasty for the furniture design, the Northern Song dynasty for porcelain design, the Han dynasty for fashion design, and these three dynasties are examples of timeless classic beauty that Shang Xia want to retranslate for today’s world [Jingdaily.com 2014].

Today Shangxia has three stores all over the world: Shanghai, Beijing and Paris [Shangxia.com, 2014].

The number of stores still remains few, as we motioned before the company’s aim is to promote the Chinese fine craftsmanship, thus it is more important about quality then the quantity. However this very unique brand would have a huge potentiality of grow both in the domestic Chinese market and in the global market.

Elements that drives Shang Xia’s success: Uniqueness in the product (The technique of production, the craftsmanship); A contemporary translation of the old Chinese culture (it uses the old techniques of Chinese craftsmanship together with very minimal and contemporary design); Precious material (Zitan wood, Jade); Icon item on demand (Egg-shape Teaware in bamboo weaving); Teamed up with Hermès group.

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[Shangxia.com, 2014]

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1.3.3 Jiang Nan Bu Yi Jiang Nan Bu Yi or simply JNBY is a womenswear brand founded in 1994 in Hangzhou, China. Being a Mainland Chinese designer brand, the company has already a retail network of 200 monobrand stores distributed in the first and second tier cities and more than 700 point of sales all over the country, even if most of them are franchise stores [Jingdaily.com, 2011].

From 2004 JNBY started its global expansion, it set offices and sales team in United States and Canada, from 2005 the first boutique in Moscow was open, then the year after in Europe and Japan. In 2011 a pop up store was open in the Galeries Lafayette Paris, which has made a base for the future entry into the heart of world’s luxury, France. Today there are in total 41 JNBY stores outside of China, they are settled in Canada, USA, Spain, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and other countries. At the end of the year 2011, Fourbeschina.com has named JNBY in the list of the top six Chinese brands that has the most potentiality to be successful in the global market: Haier (household electronics), Lenovo (computer), Huawei (IT, technological devices), Li ning (sportswear), Herborist (cosmetics) and JNBY (contemporary womenswear). From 2012, JNBY started to participate the Tokyo Fashion Week, where it received the applause and appreciation from the Japanese market [Jnby.com, 2014].

JNBY has a very contemporary stylistic code. It does not use direct connections with Asian culture, but the total look of the garments somehow convey a sense of Taoism, minimal, simple in plain colors.

The concept is about creating the self-expressionism and self-confidence, through the freedom of wearing clothing and the freedom of choice. JNBY is neither like Giada selling formalwear to office ladies, nor like Shang Xia selling classic timeless pieces, it is offering another choice, the minimal urban-chic.

It is targeting to the self-confident women that are daring to wear what they feel like, and always looking for new exploration and fun in their life.

Elements that drives JNBY’s success: Strong financial and human resources; Quick expansion in the domestic market by franchisee and more attention focused on the direct owned retail networks abroad; Support from the mother company JNBY clothing & apparel limited company (JNBY is just one brand out of the three in the company); Creative and contemporary design (young design team); Vertically integrated company.

[Jnby.com, 2014]

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1.4 The need of guidance Only thinking that a retail business may find a huge difference of the local market and the environments of two different cities in China, internationalization, stepping out of the country, these social and cultural gaps will be much more dramatic. Even those very prepared companies need a period of time to establish themselves into the new foreign market. Most of the Chinese brands who succeed entering the western market are in collaboration with local partners, like ShangXia with Hermes [shangxia.com, 2014] or there are companies like Bosideng that has hired an entire local management and design team in UK [Jingdaily.com, 2013].

It is the same situation when western companies first entered in the Chinese Market, they need a local partner. Companies rely on the information and opinion given by the consultant agencies and retail business can solve the problem with franchisees. This is especially true for small and medium size enterprises, because they don’t have an internal department and human recourses dedicated to the market research and new business development. Thus they would be even more desperate for external information.

1.5 The creation of the manual book On one side there are these big fashion giants that have started their business as a manufacturer and now they are in a stage of stand still, arrived in a peak point of the business and acquired all the characteristics to enter the European market, but they just have not reacted yet. On the other side there are many young ambitious designers from small and medium fashion houses that wish to get the world recognition by participating global fashion weeks or be present at world coolest multibrand stores but they just need more information and advise.

With this project I want to find a way to help these small and big Chinese entrepreneurs that have their business in the fashion related field, as retailer, as a brand owner or as designer, to go global, entering to the heart of fashion, to Europe. The main business is offering the consultant service, but in order to reach and attract the target people, I decided to work first on a series of promotional activities, and this initial phase of communication is the core of this project. A collection of manual books that explain the European fashion system and marketed to the Chinese entrepreneurs will be created as the main material of communication. Every book has the same structure but focused in different countries.

There will be firstly produced manual books about Italy (Milan), France (Paris), and United Kingdom (London), since they are the most attractive countries for retailers and designers.

The manual book is used as a fundamental tool to connect these potential customers with the consulting agency. The objective is not to replace the work of advisory agency, the manual book will be useful as a tool that can give readers a general market information and allow them to decide whether or not to internationalize. Thus the manuals should have an adequate and attractive content at a low price and encouraging the Chinese entrepreneurs to expand their business abroad. Topics that will be spoke in the book are for example: the fashion market size and challenge of the country, the consumer groups, the company registration, the distribution system, the communication and so on. The project outcome is the manual book and the final aim of this project is the promotion of the consultant service.

There will be also a secondary benefited groups, which is international students studying in the fashion, art, and design related field in Europe. Since they would be the future generation that works in these companies, it is essential that they understand the European fashion system, and the market situation.

The manual book allows them gain more specific fashion rules in each country and better perform in their future job.

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MARKET ANALYSIS

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The project is aimed at two groups of people, the main target is the Chinese entrepreneurs and the secondary target is the international fashion students studying in Europe, who will become the main target in the near future.

2.1 Target group: Chinese entrepreneurs According to the three stages of the country development that is mentioned in the first part of the research paper, I find out that fashion always mirrors the society and there are three different level of fashion industry situation in the society: The first level or at the lowest level is what is happening in the developing countries, “only production�; The second level is when these manufacturers using the know-how and experiences acquired during the years have creates a product with characteristics and features that is suitable for its domestic market; The third level, which is at the top of this pyramid represents the fully developed country that only works on the R&D service and outsource all the manufacturing processes [Chinadaily.com.cn, 2004].

[The inevitable three process of an international brand development, by Lord Satchii, Saatchi eyes branding China Inc, chinadaily.com.cn, 2004]

Today, China is the biggest supplier and manufacturer in the world. It is still considered as a developing country, but no question China is too big to be considered as one unique territory with all equal economic situation, it is divided into first tier cities that is much ahead and then second tier and third tier cities and so on. In the past decades, when Chinese entrepreneurs have just started to produce for western brands, they understood that what they are producing for western brands, in their domestic market does not exist and there is no competition at all. Thus, with their experience and know-how they immediately started to create products with characteristics and features that are suitable for the domestic market, under their own brand label. This is how big domestic fashion brand names have started in China [Jianhua Zhao, 2013].

The entrepreneur target group has inside two different profiles, one is the big fashion giants that have started their business as a manufacturer and now they are the market leader and the other one is the young ambitious designers working independently in a small and medium fashion houses, which is more interesting for this project because they lack the internal resources and thus they need more external information. Today with China’s speedy fashion industry growth and the society change have encouraged many young designers to create their own fashion labels and work independently. However, before expanding abroad, even the small and medium size companies should be operating in the field at least for two or more years, and are in a stage of growth.

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Target profile : Entrepreneurs running a large scale business

Head of a fashion corporation with current main market in the Greater China; Many years of experience in the fashion field; Existing networks of relationships abroad; Well connected to the world and informed about latest news through different tools (Journals, magazines, newspapers, online platforms, tech devices); * Living in Guangdong province or nearby.

* Looking for fashion-clothing manufacturers in Alibaba.com, 90% of the companies headquarter are located in the South of China, cities like Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Foshan. They are the manufacturing centres, they are where all the factories located [Alibaba.com, 2014].

Target profile : Entrepreneurs running a Small and Medium scale

Head of a small and medium fashion house with current main market in the Greater China; Usually he/she is also the art director of the company; Few years of experience in the fashion field; Graduated from a fashion or art institution; Well connected to the world and informed about latest news through different tools (Journals, magazines, newspapers, online platforms, tech devices); Their studio are set in the metropolis like Shanghai or Beijing.

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The advantages of internationalization into European countries are many, not only it can acquire new markets with new customers, it would also boost the domestic country sales by strengthening the brand awareness abroad and thus increasing the brand value. Setting up the business in a foreign country means also building a new network that can help to acquire new information and would be useful for improve the company in overall (production, distribution, marketing & communication strategies, HR, and so on). Thus the Chinese entrepreneurs are well motivated to expand their business abroad.

The current circumstances are quite positive and encouraging, example internationalization and globalization have reached a mature stage, cross boarding business has a well-organized system as well, people became more & more open minded and eagle to accept the news with less discrimination especially young people living in metropolis.

On the other side it will boost the sales in China domestic market because most of Chinese people are inspired by the western way of living, and the choices of western people. If they know or see the brand that they are wearing is also quite successful in Europe, they will be proud of it and this will strengthen the customer loyalty towards the brand. Thus the Chinese entrepreneurs are well motivated to expand their business abroad [Stefania Saviolo and Erica Corbellini, 2009] However we should also consider there are many barriers to overcome.

Made in China or Chinese brand is usually considered low quality product and it would be tough to convince western people about product quality and brand value. Entering the European market means competing with its western employer brand who gave the knowledge of product making to the company. In case the company decide to make a product tailored to the local western consumers with a different marketing strategy from the Chinese market, example different material and higher price there will be probably a brand confusion for the consumers in China and in Europe.

In the book of Global Marketing A decision oriented approach by Svend Hollensen, is stated that in order to decide whether or not going to internationalization we have to analyze two main objects: one is the environment, and another one is the company itself. Since entering a new marking is a high risk task in the growth matrix and it probably requires a long time before the break even point of investment and revenue, the company must have a solid finance resource.

If we look for fashion-clothing brands in Alibaba.com, 90% of the companies headquarter are located in the South of China, cities like Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Foshan. They are the manufacturing centres, they are where all the factories located.

Advantages: Create the brand awareness internationally; Get in new market and acquire new customers; Increase brand value; Boost domestic market sale; Build a new network.

Supporting circumstances: Internationalization & Globalization; Younger people (open mentality); Most of Chinese people are inspired by the western way of living.

Risks: Local customer mentality (Made in China is always perceived as low quality products); Competition with western employer brand to whom the company is offering the production service; Long time period of start up process (strong background founding); Brand confusion & misunderstanding (in case there is a different product tailored to the local consumer with a different marketing strategy).

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2.2 Case studies of potential customers Here below is a couple examples of companies that can be this project target, one is a large scale company named Choi Tai Fook, which is the biggest Chinese jeweller in Mainland China, and the other one represents the small medium scale company named Dong Liang, which is a multibrand retailer.

I took them as the target profile example because both of them have the feature of representing the Chinese culture and eastern beauty. Currently, they are very successful in the domestic market and looking for further development and expanssion.

2.2.1 Chow Tai Fook Chow Tai Fook is synonymous with success and luxury for all Chinese. It is a jewellery brand found in 1929 and It is a pure Mainland Chinese brand. Not only because of its origin is in the Mainland China, but also it has a very traditional Chinese style. Not like other Chinese companies that tend to create a western sounding trademark in order to inspire consumers, Chow Tai Fook is a name with a very strong Chinese accent. It has always stated that it is a traditional and historical Chinese jeweller, well known for its attention to the quality and detail.

By analysing the last campaign video “Reflections of Siem, High jewellery 2014 collection” we can see many Buddhism religion elements behind and the Chinese Red as the gown’s colour of the model is the dominant colour. The timeless of the diamonds are translated into the faithful belief of the religion [Jingdaily.com, 2012].

The diamonds comes from South Africa, gold and other materials mainly in China but they are worked and refined in Shunde, a place in China that is well known for the craftsmanship of its citizens and their smart hands. Chow Tai Fook has benefited a lot from the Chinese market demand of the luxury products in the last years, only by thinking that in 2010 there was only 1000 Chow Tai Fook POS, and it has doubled the numbers into 2000 POS now. Since there is few room left for further development in the domestic market, the company has recently started operating in the neighbourhood countries with similarity of culture and religion like Malaysia and Singapore.

Chow Tai Fook has all the qualities and requirements to internationalize its company by opening POS in Europe and Americas, even if they are quite different regions in terms of culture and religion. What drives the western consumers to buy a luxury item is the uniqueness and self-expressionism. Items that are connoted with a very strong country’s tradition and culture are very appreciated by consumers in the developed countries. Chow Tai Fook ‘s main product is made of yellow gold and jade, the material itself is already a very Chinese emblematic element and the design usually has a profound tradition and meaning behind. Chow Tai Fook can start its entry with collections like the twelve Chinese Zodiac signs, the blissful collection and Jade collections [Chowtaifook.com, 2014].

Chow Tai Fook’s main strengths in going to internationalization: Strong financial and human resources; Solid base, historical brand; Experience of dealing with foreign countries’ company (supplier in South Africa and in Russia); Experience of expanding the business and retailing in a new country (Malaysia and Singapore); Strong in representing the country’s best side and transforming it into its products (Chinese craftsmanship, the culture and tradition); Vertically integrated company.

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[Chowtaifook.com, 2014]

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2.2.2 Dong Liang Dong Liang is a multibrand store dedicated to promoting Chinese designers. It was founded in 2009 by two young fashion passionate guys Charles Wang and Nan Lang with intention of selling high quality clothing with unique designs. Currently Dong Liang has two locations, one in Beijing and one in Shanghai and they stock over 20 designers such as Uma Wang, Xander Zhou, Vega Zaishi Wang, Manchit Au, Zhang Da, He Yan, Leo Kong, Sarah Yun, Liu Qingyang, TBA and Ben [Dongliangchina. com, 2014].

It was difficult to covince designers to stock their collections inside Dong Liang at beginning, but now since Dong Liang already got fashion industry recognition and appreciated by the consumers, more and more designers knock at Dong Liang’s door in order to be part of it. Almost all Dong Liang’s designers are under the age of 30, because Dong Liang believe that only through the new interpretation of these young designers, the chinese design can be promoted in the international fashion scene [Jingdaily.com, 2011].

Dong Liang has a very strong communication team, even as a retailer it is presented at the Shanghai Fashion Week every season. Dong Liang promotes the in-store designers with catwalk shows under Dong Liang’s name. Last season for example Dong Liang supported three designers debuted to the Shanghai Fashion Week with three independent shows and made one unique show presenting multi designers.

In order to prove that young entrepreneurs usually are very enthusiastic, ambitious and would like to get the word recognition by entering western markets, here below reports a short interview of Dong Liang with the studio Design China, an online media platform. The two young founders of Dong Liang said that the fashion scene here in China is blossoming, however, they still need to catch up to international fashion. In the next few years they would like to have more people in the fashion world to be aware of Dong Liang; not just locally, but globally as well. They believe that designers’ products should not always appeal to a niche audience. Every well-known brand such as Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton went from appealing to a small consumer base to worldwide influence. They think this path is inevitable for Chinese design as well. [Design-china.org, 2014] The business itself is a very daring concept in China. Offering unknown Chinese designer pieces labelling them with Made-in-China and sold to the local people in a high price. However the growth of the business proved the success of this concept [Dongliangchina.com, 2014]. Dong Liang can be successful also in the western market because first of all, their target people are young and avantgarde, they pay more attention on the design than the country of origin issue; Secondly European market has already went through the period of logo mania and big brand names, they appreciate designers pieces that can fully interpret themselves; last but not least, a high-end multibrand store keeping only Chinese designer products is a very strong concept.

Dong Liang’s main strengths in going to internationalization: Uniqueness in the product and brand; The business model (Multibrand retailer and niche designer brands is a growing market); Communication (Dongliang is showing at Shanghai Fashion Week, as one unique brand name but presenting all its designers inside the store).

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[Dongliangchina.com, 2014]

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2.3 Target group: International Students The secondary target group is international fashion students studying inside Europe.

They are interested of reading this manual because it would give them several advantages like: 1) Help the expansion of the family business in China International fashion students studying in Europe very often come from a family that runs a fashion related business in their home countries. Thus they can apply this manual as a first guide for family business expansion.

2) Better perform in the work International students have the advantage of the better knowledge of the European local market than the fashion students who graduate in the China. They would probably get a job in an international company where they need to know their home countries market and European market. The manual would be quite essential and interesting for them if they have to understand the European fashion market in order to better perform at their job.

3) Consulting device for start up business Another fact is that today many creative students teamed up together to co-create a start up business after their internship or immediately after their graduation. The manual will be an essential tool as the first consulting device.

The most prestigious and best fashion institutions in Europe are located in London, Paris and Milan. Considering that luxury management, fashion business, fashion marketing and communications, fashion design, are among the most popular courses in the latest years due to the industry demand of qualified people. The number of international students is yearly increasing to study in the heart of the European fashion capitals.

The target is not limited only on fashion institutions only, considering that many public universities and colleges also offer fashion business or design courses.

In order to get an idea of the approximate potential market size, only by calculating the number of fashion institutions in London, Paris, Milan and Florence, there are at least 26 internationally wellknown schools and no-EU students take a great majority in them. Our potential customers or manual book buyers are all the international students studying in these schools.

International Fashion Students Target profile

Studying fashion related courses in the fashion capitals like London, Milan and Paris; Coming from a middle class-wealthy family; May probably have the family business working in the fashion industry; Well connected to the world and informed about latest news mainly through hi-tech devices (smart phone, tablet & computers); Heavy social network users; Curious, adventurous, and is a frequent traveller; Very determined.

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A list of the fashion schools in London, Milan, Florence and Paris.

UK/London: Central Saint Martins College of Arts & Design Istituto Marangoni London London College of Fashion Italy/Milan: Accademia del Lusso Haute Couture fashion academy IED Istituto Europeo di Design Istituto di Moda Burgo Istituto Marangoni Istituto Secoli Milan Fashion Campus Naba

France/Paris: Atelier Chardon-Savard E.N.S.A.D - Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs Ecole de la Chambre syndicale de la Couture Parisienne Ecole Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré Esmod/Isem Paris IFM - Institut Français de la Mode Istituto Marangoni Paris LISAA Mod’Art International Mod’Spe Paris Studio Berçot

Italy/Florence: Accademia Italiana IED Florence Polimoda Sarteco [Modemonline.com, 2014]

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2.4 Competition analysis Before making a plan of internationalization or entering a new market in a completely different geographic area, companies can took information and suggestions from different channels. Small and middle scale enterprises usually choose to collaborate with a local company or person, thus the investment and risk will be consequently reduced and shared with local enterprise. For Large scale enterprises, which have no problem regarding finance investment usually prefer to work independently and local consultant studios are one of the main information provider. However the main competitors are start Up books, consultant studios or agencies, institutions and Chinese ambassador in Italy and Italian ambassador in China.

1) Start up books Since E-book is the chosen format for the project, other books talking about topics like “how to start up your own business”, “fashion system in the country”, “retailing” would be direct competitors.

However they present low threats to our manual book, because most of these “Start-up” or “Fashion system” books are targeted to the local people, which means they are only available in their own country and written only in the language of this country. Example books about “Start Up your business in Italy” or “Fashion system in Italy” would be only available in Italian language and sold only in Italian bookstores [Lafeltrinelli.it, 2014]. For the international students it might present as a competitor of our manual book, but for Chinese entrepreneurs it won’t be any threat, because these books cannot reach to our target.

2) Consultant Studios & agencies Local consultant studios & agencies are usually the main information provider for foreign companies.

They are essential during the whole process of the new market entry planning. Companies can rely on them to understand local market situation, rules, find the right producer or retailer, build up the connections and so on[Modemonline.com, 2014].

3) Institutions In Europe there exist many state-owned, public institutions, federations and industry associations that are willingly to boost the local economy by attracting foreign investors. They offer business-consulting services and some of them also gives lectures in China in order to attract Chinese investors.

Examples of main Italian Institutions are Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana and Camera del Commercio [Cameramoda.it, 2014] 4) Embassy Ambassadors very often are the first reference for companies who want to expand their business abroad. For example in the official website page of Italian embassy in China (Consolato Generale d’Italia a Shanghai) under the section of consular services there is an area dedicated to “Doing business in Italy” and vice verca “ Doing business in China”. It informs Chinese entrepreneurs about regulation and incentives, trade opportunities, investment opportunities, macro economic context and other useful information. [consshanghai.esteri.it, 2014]

2.5 Summary There exist in the market many large and small Chinese fashion enterprise that have the potentiality of having the success in the western countries. They are qualified because of the solid financial base and they are intended to be successful in conquering the western consumers because of the distinctive design and style. They are willingly to expand their business abroad and get the world recognition.

But however internationalization still presents as a huge challenge, and they need to be encouraged by moving the first step. Creating a manual book that motivate the reasons of entering the new market and showing an overview of the new market and fashion system will make the entrepreneurs more confident about the new market environment and thus encouraging them to plan for the expansion.

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FASHIONPEDIA FOR START-UP

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Product:

Place:

A collection of manual books

Online On the project official website

Price:

Promotion:

40 Euro

Mixed strategy Online + Offline

360 RMB (Chinese currency)

for international students: In-school promotion for chinese entrepreneurs: Business magazine adv.

Trade fair presentation and collaboration with commerce institutions

3.1 Product: The project is called “Fashionpedia for Start-Up”. It consists of creating a collection of manual books that explains to the Chinese entrepreneurs and International fashion student how does the fashion system work in Europe and what they need to know for starting up their own fashion business in the area. As the final outcome object from this thesis, a manual book dedicated to the Italian market would be produced as an example. The manual book designed for Italian market has the book title of “Fashionpedia for Start-Up in Italy” with the subtitle of “ All you need to know to create your own fashion business in Italy”.

Since the manual book works as the promotional material of the consultant studio, it should offer only a brief but attractive information content to the readers in order to convince them about the business expansion abroad. When they have decided to internationalize, the consultant studio can offer a tailored consultant service for each different business or projects basing upon their needs.

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It is decided to publish the manual only as E-book format for the worldwide Internet users because of several reasons: 1. The book length: the manual book is less than a hundred pages, a brochure and e-book format would be more suitable for the size.

2. Production cost: producing as E-book means zero cost for printing, the product is sold only on demand.

3. Target: either heads of fashion companies in China or international students studying in Europe, are the first ones who receive the latest information of the fashion industry. They are heavy tech users and E-book would be the very handle and easy format.

4. Society change: today most of the physical businesses are suffering strongly by the tendency of getting every thing through a click on the screen. Fashion, as the industry that mirrors the society, should be avant-garde, and adapt itself to the new technology.

1. Book Size & Lenght

2. Production Cost E-Book 3. Target Profile

reasons to use an electronic book format instead of a paper printed product

3. Society adaptation

However a small amount of printed copies will be sold in the trade fair presentations and project presentation events. Since we are in the direct contact or face to face situation with the audience during these promotional events, printed copy will be more suitable for the situation.

3.2 Place: Along side with e-book an online platform, the official website, is created as the selling platform and also communication platform. From this online platform, the world Internet users can access the website and download the e-book.

For the starting of the business it is decided to use Shopify.com, an online tool that helps small business to create an independent online store with low cost and low effort, but with a great technology behind and 24/7 support. Besides acting as a selling platform, the website can have newsletter subscription feature and news, posts update, social network and blog can be linked too. The website has a monthly fixed fee of 20euro and charges 2% of transactional fee as basic version and 55 euro with 1% of the transactional fee as professional version [Shopify.com, 2014]. For the first three months of market test, it is used only the basic format and according to the performance it will be evolved into the professional version and for the future a more complete independent website will be created.

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3.3 Promotion: Since the two target groups (entrepreneurs and international students) have a quite different profile, the communication plan would be differently designed for each of them.

In order to reach Chinese entrepreneurs, and let them know about the existence of this very useful fashion business guide, it is used several different channels.

1. Submission of articles to Caijing, the best reputed Chinese business & economy magazine. It is a weekly magazine that is distributed online as e-magazine, mobile app and offline as traditional paper magazine [English.caijing.com.cn, 2014].

2. Trade fair promotion in China and in Italy, where there is a wide presence of fashion related business companies participation. Leaflets are printed and put in the free press areas at entrance of fairs.

Inside the most important trade fairs like Pitti Uomo in Florence and CHIC (China International Clothing & Accessory fair) in Shanghai, a small space is rent and entirely dedicated to the promotion of the consultant studio by distributing leaflets and selling printed manual books [Cnga.org.cn, 2014].

3. Collaboration with Commerce institutions like Camera di Commercio Italo Cinese. Using their wide network the commerce institution can help on the promotion of the project by sending direct emails to their members or organizing events inviting Chinese entrepreneurs that are subscribed to them [China-italy.it, 2014].

4. Organizing events with the support of local community organizations in different districts of China, example in the south of china, where most of fashion companies’ headquarters are located. The presentation of the book, European fashion system and market situation will be the content of the event but the aim is to build relationship for the core business of consultancy service [Cnga.org.cn, 2014].

Article on Cai Jing business weekly magazine

Trade fair presentation E-Book Promotion to Chinese entrepreneurs

Collaboration with commerce institutions :for e-book selling and events

Using E-book as a communication tool to reach chinese entrepreneurs and building the relationship for the core business of consultancy service

Project presentation in different districts of China

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For the international students, the offline communication will be focused in School. A free copy printed will be given to the school library, so students can browse it for free at library. It would be also given discount for students who want to buy it online, which is 30%. A poster will be attached to the universities’ notice board for the promotion in side the school.

As online, since a free copy is given to the school library and special price to buy the e-book for students, where is possible, it is asked the advertisement on the school official website page that displays our book cover with a brief description under notice board section, and the librarian to send the promotional email to the international students to inform them about this interesting book and the advantage of the price that they can get as student.

Free copy at library

Special student price E-Book Promotion to international fashion students

Direct email from librarian

Using E-book as educational material to engage internatinal fashion students, the future fashion enterprise managers.

Promotional poster at school notice board

3.4 Price: 40 euro The price is calculated basing on several considerations : The production cost, which is “Zero� producing more copies as E-book, it is only the effort and time spent producing the first copy; The supportive elements cost (the website, which acts as the selling platform has a maintenance cost); The promotion and advertising cost; The general market price for similar products or services; The customer/end-user expectations and objective of this project.

Considering that in the market for similar products and services like the market research offered by Trendwatching.com or SWGN, are usually in the subscription, which can cost 2000-3000 euro per year or about 200 euro per one report [Trendwatching.com, 2014].

Usually reports over a thousand euro are very technical and specific in one field and offers very complete information. An introductive manual book like this project can be accepted by the readers with a price about a hundred euro [Istat.it, 2014].

The last and most important consideration is the aim of this project, since this manual book works only as a tool of promotion for the consultancy business, the goal will be reach as many readers as possible, thus the price should be reduced as a professional fashion business book price[Lafeltrinelli. it, 2014] In the end the price is decided to be 40 euro, which can cover the cost and attract the target with an interesting price.

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PROJECT LAYOUT

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4.1 The manual book content The manual book works as a promotional material of the consultancy service. It provides a general idea of the fashion market to readers, how does the fashion system work and what are essential to know in order to set up your own fashion business in this country. In specific an example of the manual book focused on the Italian market is produced. Here below is the table of the content and the brief explanation of every single chapter’s content. For the full version please check the appendix at end of the project.

Introduction Chapter 1 Market overview 1.1 Motivation of the market entry 1.2 The market size Chapter 2 Consumer scenario 2.1 The society profile Chapter 3 Company registration 3.1 Registering a company 3.2 Institutions involved Chapter 4 Production and manufacturing 4.1 The production areas 4.2 Materials trade fair Chapter 5 Wholesale distribution 5.1 The distribution system in Italy 5.2 Trade fairs 5.3 Showrooms Chapter 6 Retailing 6.1 Shopping districts & areas 6.2 Big scale retailers 6.3 Multibrand stores Chapter 7 Communication 7.1 Communication and Advertising 7.2 Fashion week and events Appendix - Useful information

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Introduction The manual book starts with a general introduction explaining the aim of this book and what it offers to the readers. It defines what kind of business is suitable for which country’s market; example UK is essential for retail business, France for high-end couture houses, Italy for contemporary ready to wear brands [Erica Corbellini and Stefania Saviolo, 2009] Chapter 1Market overview The first chapter starts with the motivation of the business entry in this country and convincing companies why they should be interested expanding their business in this place.

In order to define the fashion market size of a country it is used some data like the fashion industry related employees’ number compared with overall country employees’ number, textile import and export quantities, what is the output of this industry and so on. It is essential to understand the new market size and the importance of the fashion business in this country first of all because basing on these facts a company can understand if this market is interesting or not; secondly the company should know what is the maximum profit it can reach in this market and how far it can go.

Chapter 2 Consumer scenario The second chapter focuses the Italian society profile. It is quite important to analyse the country’s population’s profile (population number, median age, education level, income, life style) in order to understand if there exist a consumer group for your product offer.

Chapter 3 Company registration After having defined the market and the potential consumer group, it is the time to think about how the activity can be brought in this territory. This chapter speaks about what does one should consider mainly when he is setting up a business in this country. There is an explaination on the main types of company registrations and a general explanation about how to register a brand, how long will take the process and which are the main institutions involved.

Chapter 4 Production and manufacturing From the chapter 4 starts a series of detailed explanation on the three most important fashion enterprise activities: Production, Distribution and Retailing.

From a company point of view, understand where are the production areas and who are the best raw material providers, helps the Chinese entrepreneur to compare the local production or material with the already existing one, in terms of cost, convenience and quality.

Chapter 5 Wholesale distribution The chapter 5 is dedicated entirely to the distribution system which comes after the production phase, and it is quite essential for the retail business and for small designer brands in order make a proper plan to distribute its own products through the right channel and arrive to the targeted final customers.

Starting from wholesale level, it is analyzed the most important trade fairs, agents and showrooms.

For every single trade fair is explained the unique feature and the environment of the fair, the kind of product that are usually presented, the type of brands and buyers that participate it.

Wholesale distribution through showrooms is quite typical way of reaching stores in the westerncountries, but for Chinese enterprises this is not yet a very experienced platform, especially the multibrand showrooms, which rarely exist in China. After a brief introduction of this topic, the manual provides an analysis of the current most relevant showrooms. They are grouped by gender (men, women and children), by product (apparel or accessory or both), by style (feminine, urban), by brand (young brand or well-known brands), by distribution area (national or worldwide distribution). So in the end a designer brand can understand which showroom agent meets its needs and suits it best.

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Chapter 6 Retailaing Retailing is the most crucial phase inside the fashion business; it determines whether or not your product will reach the target consumers, thus affecting the sales and the brand image. The chapter is dedicated to inform readers, which are the main fashion cities, districts and retailers. Starting from the big scale retailers, department stores to avant-garde multibrand stores. It is interesting also to understand associations related in the retailing field.

Chapter 7 Communication The last chapter is dedicated to “how to promote the activity�. No doubt that Europe is the fashion centre of the world, it hosts many international fashion events every year. This chapter analysis how do communication and advertising work in the country and who are the main players inside this field (PR, press offices, magazines and so on).

Taking part world fashion weeks has always been a symbol of the glory for a fashion house, and a dream for many young designers and small enterprises. Thus in the manual book of France, Italy and UK there will be also a paragraph dedicated to Fashion Week topic, and for other countries it will be local fashion events. It explains which kind of brand is worth to invest on organizing a fashion show and all the processes and requirements in order to present the collection during the Fashion Week.

Appendix - Useful information The manual provides a list of useful information in the end of the book, with a list fashion related websites, like associations or foundations.

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BUSINESS OVERVIEW

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5.1 The Business Model Canvas The business model canvas [Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010] below shows an overview of the whole business. Since the project is focused on the communication activity to promote the agency in the begining, at start up period, the scope is to identify all the activities neccessary to launch the consultancy agency and its relative cost. After a series of communication activities are accomplished, the first milestone is to achieve enough consultancy agreements in order to cover at least the start-up costs.

Limitations: It is not possible to estimate the amount of consultancy agreements that can be closed and the pricing of every consultancy (as the framework can significantly vary from customer to customer). However in the conclusion part shows a total cost assumption and is presented the revenues that comes from selling the manual book, neccessary to cover the start-up cost.

The project is very focused on one of the key activities, which is communication material production, and a sample of the manual book on the Italian market is produced. Thus there is no a detailed explanation on the other two activities: the website creation and the communication events.

- Commerce institutions - China National Garment Association -China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textile and Apparel

- communication material: manual book - communication events - website creation

Tailored consultant service

Data and humans resource support from key partners.

Large promotional cost offline and online communication

Direct email marketing (subscription to an online website)

Chinese entrepreneurs and International students

- Online platform/ project official website - Trade fairs - Training, conference events

One time payment for manual books.

Constant revenue from consultant service

The business model generation by Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010

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Value proposition: The main business is offering tailored consultancy service for the Chinese enterprises.

Customer segments: Chinese entrepreneurs in the medium and small fashion companies are the primary target segment; international fashion students are the secondary target, which can become the primary target working in a fashion company in the near future.

Key activity: The key activities are mainly three: 1. Producing the manual book as the communication material in order to promote the main business of consultancy service; 2. Making a series of communication events, speeches held in different cities in China in order to reach the local entrepreneurs; 3. Creating a website as a platform for communication, for selling the manual book online.

Key partners: 1. Commerce institutions; 2. China National Garment Association; 3. Local associations of apparel and textile.

The key partners are commerce institutions and associations; through their wide network and connections they can send promotional email to their Chinese entrepreneur members, media journalists in order to inform them about the project and the manual book. Coherent with the aim of these commerce associations, which is promoting the fashion industry business, they are demanded to organize and sponsor this project, which aims to promote the cross boarding fashion business.

Key resources: Data, financial and human resources come from the support of key partners.

Channels: 1. The online website working as the main platform to communicate with the target and to sell the manual book as communication material and as a complementary revenue of the consultant studio; 2. International fashion trade fairs; 3. In the training and conference events held in China, direct relationships with local Chinese entrepreneurs are created.

Customer Relationships: Subscribing at website, applicants can receive weekly a newsletter regarding the latest industry news and laws regulations.

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5.2 Project launch It is only a short term planning of seven months because of the following reasons: 1. Selling e-book as an online activity can have direct feedback from customers in the real time, and depending on the current performance and society change the plan can be set accordingly; 2. E-book is only the initiative phase of the future business as consultancy, so it is enough to have a short term plan.

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September: September 2014 is the launch of the project.

It is decided to launch the project in september because, this is the most busy and important month of the year in the fashion industry. In september, Chinese fashion professionals will come to Italy for Milan fashion week, and international fashion students also are coming back to the universities.

A website on Shopify.com with basic functions are created, with a monthly fee of 20 euro and 2% on the transaction retain [Shopify.com, 2014]. The actions are split in two parts, one focusing on the promotional activities with the fashion university institutions and another part focused on Milano Fashion Week. 50 copies of the manual book will be printed as the minimum print number required by printing store [Pressup.it, 2004], 12 printed copies have to be sent to Italian fashion institutions and 14 to French and English fashion universities for free.

In order to reach the primary target, Chinese entrepreneurs and fashion industry professionals’ attention, promotional leaflets are realized and put into the free press area of the international trade fairs that are held in Milan in September period. 1000 leaflets are printed as standard printing number[Pressup.it, 2014] to distribute in Mi Cam, Mi Pel, Milano Unica, Mi PAP and White.

October Shanghai Fashion Week is held also in this month [Shanghaifashionweek.com, 2014], as the only responsible person running this project, I will travel to Shanghai in order to talk with local organizations in order have the promotional leaflets distributed in the free press area of different fashion events November Two events are organized with local apparel & garment associations in Guang Dong and Shen Zhen, where most of the fashion apparel companies has their headquarter offices and production factories [Alibaba.com, 2014]. It is assumed there will be at least 200 attendants during the event. thus 200 copies of printed manual book will be available to sell during each event. The event is entirely sponsored by the local associations because it can benefit their members by offering them a lecture presenting the latest information regarding the Italian fashion market and industry. The event will be also advertised on the most well reputed and important Chinese business weekly magazine, Caijing.

* Camera di Comercio Italo Cinese (CICC) service cost, and catering services pricing informations are numbers acquired from the interview with CICC Shanghai event organizer Mr. Yan Li.

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December The updated version of the website is created on Shopify.com with a price of 57euro per month that offers a bigger storage and only 1% on the transaction retain [Shopify.com, 2014].

January Pitti, the world most important menswear trade fair is held in Florence. The main activity is focused on preparing for the promotion inside Pitti, by renting a space of 2-3 square meters about or only a desk at the reception /entrance place.

February Like the period of September, for the women’s fashion week period, leaflets are distributed in the free press area of international fashion trade fairs.

March The second trip to Shanghai is in March for promoting the project in CHIC, China International Clothing & Accessories Fair as the biggest clothing trade fair in Asia, with an exhibition space of more than 100,000m2, attracting over 1000 brands from more than 30 countries and regions, and over 100,000 professional visitors every year [Cnga.org.cn, 2014].

A tent/box will be placed inside Chic Young Blood section, it is the section inside Chic trade fair dedicated to promote the young Chinese designers.

For such a big trade fair there is the need of recruiting one personnel to help distributing the leaflets inside the trade fair for designer exhibitors and visitors.

5.3 Conclusion

The above plan showa that the initial investment of 25,747 euro is requested to launch the initiative.

After a period of seven months should be closed consultancy for at least 25,747 € in order to cover start-up costs. Since it is not possible to estimate the amount of consultancy agreements that can be closed and the pricing of every consultancy, the only revenue stream tha tcan be measured is from the manual book selling. This means at least 644 copies must be sold in these 7 months of period in order to come with break even point.

Single copy sold price € 40 Total spending € 25.747

= 644 copies sold in order to cover the spending

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Conclusion

In the on going developing process of this thesis, several Chinese companies were stepping forth together with my research. In September 2012 Giada, the Chinese owned luxury brand opened its first store in Via Montenapoleone, in September 2013 Shangxia, the very unique Chinese lifestyle brand opened its first boutique in Paris, and in the same year in UK, a Chinese fashion giant, Bosideng shocked the media and fashion industry by opening a huge menswear store in the centre of London. And in the same time many new emerging Chinese designer names appeared on the world fashion media. For the very first time the Made-in-China, Chinese brands are struggling to get the world recognition and they are appealing on the world stage. I was very encouraged by reading these news that has further proven my hypothesis, of Chinese brands preparing to go global and the existence of the need of a guidance for the market.

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Future developments

The further development is extend the manual book collection in new geographic areas, which means always targeting to the Chinese entrepreneurs, manual books with same content structure but focusing on other countries’ fashion scene can be produced.

And the same process of presentation, attracting partners and sponsorships can be applied in every new geographic area. Taking example of expanding the business in France, the project should be presented to the French fashion associations and commerce institutions, and then a series of training conferences are presented in China with aim of encouraging Chinese fashion businesses coming to France.

The future development of this project is working on the consultant service program tailored to the Chinese fashion companies. Since the customer data base is already built through the communication and the branding activities in this first stage of business.

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