In the post-pandemic era, the internal competition among jewelry industry brands is intertwined with the sluggish market, while the anxiety of channels and the wailing of stores are tearing at each other. At the same time, the competitive landscape of retail terminals has "initially taken shape", and the list of major brands has been released. Facing the harsh market environment where numerous strong competitors surround and the survival of the fittest prevails, where is the way for small and medium-sized enterprises to advance to strong brands?
It took several years and an investment of millions of yuan to build an enterprise-specific information system, and it was the first to implement enterprise digital transformation. In the most challenging year of 2022, it launched a nationwide franchise expansion offensive, and the number of newly signed stores far exceeded that of its competitors. Under the overwhelming momentum of market expansion, it remained committed to its original intentions and focused on improving store quality. At the same time, it strengthened brand recognition for consumers and managed to enhance the business interests of partners. It provided multi-faceted and comprehensive support to franchise partners, achieving the goal of creating beauty for the public and benefiting society...
Transform the responsibility of a "major brand" into the corporate mission - "Preserving the six-pronged spirit of thousands of years, creating oriental cultural jewelry"; For every battle in the expansion of the territory, from a strategic perspective, one must have a broad vision and meticulous planning, and various "strategies" must be skillfully applied to achieve victory thousands of miles away...
Liugufu Jewelry,After 16 years of development, it has become a large-scale jewelry retail group with the main businesses of jewelry design and development, wholesale and retail, as well as franchise operations. As of now, Liugufu has opened over 1,000 sales outlets across the country and is a leading comprehensive jewelry brand integrating gold, diamonds, colored gemstones, platinum, and K gold and other jewelry items.
Behind all these glories, Mr. Weng Guoqiang, the leader of Liugufu Jewelry, has also "broken through the boundaries and become a deity". Under his leadership, the various "strategies" implemented - market strategies - have been proven to withstand the test of time and have enabled the brand to remain confident even in the face of "rivalry from multiple forces", achieving continuous success in conquering and advancing. Let's take the "four major strategies" of Liugufu as an example to reveal the essence of its market strategies, which may be worth learning from by peers~~
I. Cultural War
In the view of Liugufu, the foundation and soul that enable an enterprise to maintain vitality and achieve sustainable operation must be an enterprise culture that complements and enhances the enterprise strategy. Even the most excellent strategy will fail to be realized on schedule without the support of an outstanding enterprise culture. Moreover, the length of an enterprise's lifespan depends on the quality of its culture.
From cultural exploration to cultural soul-strengthening, from cultural foundation-building to cultural marketing, Liugufu has uniquely created a brand protection moat constructed by the elements of inheritance, transmission of skills, innovation, dissemination, communication and perpetuation, namely the "Six Transmission Principles" cultural matrix. Whether it is the brand strategic positioning or strategic goals, they all lie in the cultural roots of this "Six Transmission Principles" cultural matrix.
Among them, "inheritance" refers to the tracing back and inheritance of the thousand-year cultural heritage of "six lotus blossoms blooming together" by Liugufu; "passing on skills" refers to the persistence of Liugufu in inheriting the ancestral Eastern court jewelry craftsmanship of "four generations passing the baton"; "innovation" refers to Liugufu integrating Chinese traditional culture with the "six ancient techniques" of forging, hammering, polishing, engraving, filigree, and setting into modern jewelry creation; "transmission" refers to Liugufu's unique creation of the "five senses and six perceptions" cultural terminal, which enhances the spiritual experience of customers through scenario creation, reaching their deep emotional needs; "transmission" refers to Liugufu's embedding the "loved selection" sentiment in customers' hearts in jewelry, through a series of brand-specific cultural IP jewelry, to convey love and warmth, and beauty and happiness; "legacy" refers to Liugufu creating national-level masterpieces that combine "the soul of the East and modern beauty", firmly establishing the positioning of Eastern cultural jewelry, awakening the cultural confidence that the industry should have, and making Eastern cultural jewelry "come alive", truly achieving "not letting down the ancients, but leaving a gift for the successors".
This "cultural battle" that runs through the entire enterprise is not only about wisdom and strategy, but also the "preservation secret" that enables Liugufu to thrive and maintain its foundation over the long term through various cycles.
II. Breakthrough Battle
To become a major brand, one must have a large stage. Since 2006, when the company's operation headquarters was moved from Hegang to Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province, the "ambition" of Liugufu began to emerge - it launched the "headquarters flag-raising strategy", aiming to set up successful models for all its stores across the country and then move towards becoming an industry benchmark brand.
In 2006, the first brand store of Liugufu opened in Harbin Daguowu Mall. Soon after, another 9 direct-operated chain stores were opened successively. At that time, Liugufu occupied the iconic business district of Harbin and had an imposing presence and a great reputation. However, compared with the "Hong Kong-funded major brands and national brands" that had initiated the franchise chain strategy earlier, it still appeared immature and weak. To win the brand breakthrough battle in Harbin, Liugufu had its own clear understanding and deployment. That was to vigorously promote the brand - occupying the core business district of the core market and making the brand stand out in a prominent position as a role model and benchmark; the "profit-sharing" policy was carried out as promised - transferring the directly-operated stores with good operating profits at a discounted price to completely eliminate the worries of franchisees; the market operation was meticulously planned - improving the management system, formulating seven basic standards for franchisees, and not accepting any unnecessary additions to ensure that franchisees open one, operate one, and make profits one.
From the provincial capital to the prefectural-level cities and then to the subordinate counties, one after another, model markets were established. Within just a few years, the distribution network in Heilongjiang Province became extremely dense and business was booming. It became a symbol of the "headquarters flag-raising strategy", indicating the correctness and exemplary role of this strategy.
In 2022, Liugufu regarded Beijing and Shenzhen, the two super first-tier cities, as the strategic key points for its "local breakthrough campaign". It firmly planted its brand flag at the core positions of each core shopping district. Up to now, the "headquarters flag-raising strategy" of the first batch of 9 flagship stores in Beijing and the first batch of 7 flagship stores in Shenzhen has been successfully implemented. The brand style has also been fully and significantly demonstrated and enhanced through the upgrading of the channels.
III. Trench Warfare
Those who fail to consider the overall situation cannot succeed in a single area; those who fail to consider the long-term future cannot succeed in the short term. The market training strategy of Liugufu, which takes the lead in planning, has segmented the national market into different channels, using a combination of point-based and area-based strategies to flexibly apply various tactics, and "Northeast King" has embarked on the grand project of "chasing the world's dominance".
Following the successful market breakthrough in Heilongjiang, in 2012, Liugufu Jilin Company was established, and in 2013, Liaoning Company was also established. In 2014, the company fully launched efforts to consolidate the channels in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces: On one hand, for the cities with potential for expansion in the advantageous markets, "conducting saturation attacks with concentrated firepower" - that is, channel densification; on the other hand, for the un-covered county-level areas in the blank markets, implement "fast, precise and tough market penetration" - that is, channel occupation.
After going through numerous market expansions, penetrations and tough battles, Liugufu completed the integration of the three northeastern provinces in less than three years, laying the foundation for its march southward and its campaign across the country. It created a "Northeastern Base Area" with well-trained troops, abundant supplies and sufficient strategic depth.
As it expanded its market across the country, for each establishment of a terminal store, Liugufu regarded it as a victory in a "battle for territory". This was because on the one hand, it had to compete with major brands on the market, and on the other hand, it was also besieged by numerous "Ta brand" competitors.
In response to the complex and fierce market competition, in 2021, Liugufu took a bold and aggressive approach and promptly launched the "Five Sensations and Six Feelings" cultural terminal system. This move undoubtedly played a crucial role in helping Liugufu achieve victory in the terminal market.
It is known that the "New National Style" 5.0 flagship stores of Liugufu integrate traditional culture with modern aesthetics, the laurel tree totem with jewelry texture, brand style with national trend fashion. They create a comprehensive sensory experience for consumers, including visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory and perceptual sensations. At the same time, they also allow consumers to truly experience the spiritual experiences of the five senses, such as respect, nobility, security, comfort and pleasure. Liugufu has innovatively created a consumer-centered cultural terminal model. Due to its high-quality empowerment of terminal store operations, it has dominated the regional market and achieved one victory after another in the brand's positional battles, "blossoming" in multiple areas.
IV. Information Warfare
There is no doubt that the current trend of social commerce has already changed. The era of selling goods and making profits from price differences has come to an end. Whether it is offline physical stores or online e-commerce, in business, it is no longer a competition based on the volume of visitors, but has transformed into a competition based on the number of users and big data, that is, the new era of digital dominance in business has arrived.
In the digital age, all enterprises are confronted with new challenges of integrating with the industrial chain and social big data. Meanwhile, as the digitalization process progresses further, enterprises' demands for extracting data value and applying data at the business level are increasing day by day. For brands, relying on technological empowerment, obtaining users through application systems, acquiring big data through digital transformation, and achieving intelligent marketing will be a new battlefield.
Liugufu was well-prepared and took proactive measures based on a thorough assessment of the situation. Drawing on a profound understanding and analysis of the industry's development, it began to lay out the enterprise's informatization transformation five years ago.
Since 2016, when the headquarters of 2016 Guafu Group was relocated to Shenzhen Shuibei, it took five years and an investment of several hundred million yuan to build an enterprise-specific central warehouse management system (the product style library can achieve single-item single-code product management), as well as ERP management system, BI data analysis system and other information systems. This not only enables the analysis, tracking, flexible invocation and visual display of product data from the supply side to the business side, but also realizes the integration of the supply chain. At the same time, the central warehouse data platform has connected the data touchpoints between various business chains of the enterprise, from R&D, production, procurement to sales, and has been applied to the entire business of the enterprise, including new product development, supply chain transformation, digital procurement, and digital marketing, etc., forming the most proud data assets of 2016 Guafu.
As the saying goes, sharpening the knife doesn't hinder chopping wood. In the post-pandemic era, in the "information war" that is invisible to the naked eye, Liugufu has achieved a "super-range attack" on its brand, meaning it has deeply reached the consumer group and has also completed a perfect transformation from a strong regional brand to a national large-scale retail brand.
It can be said that the success of every battle is inseparable from the tactical application that is either flexible or ingenious. And the formulation of each tactic relies on the strategic vision and foresight. There are both strategic goals and strategic pivots, and at the same time, a better understanding of strategic focus is what makes Liugufu's "clear-headedness in the midst of confusion".
Standing at this new turning point, the danger is for the majority of people. However, the true champions can seize opportunities amid crises and embrace change. Just like Liugufu, during special times, it still soared against the wind and went against the trend. Its brand stores quickly covered most first- and second-tier cities and prefecture-level cities across the country. Of course, the factors that truly enabled Liugufu to dominate the market and achieve victory were not limited to the four tactics mentioned above. There were also battles of strength, penetration, lightning strikes, air support operations, and so on. Perhaps there were even hidden skills that have not yet been revealed? (We will share more about this later.)
Stay true to the original aspiration - inherit the six-gui spirit for thousands of years, and you will achieve success - create oriental cultural jewelry. With meticulous craftsmanship, make the nation become "the world". The market territory of the major brand Sixgui Fu is sweeping across the country with an unstoppable momentum. Finally, I would like to quote a sentence from Wang Guoqiang, the founder and chairman of Sixgui Fu: "Champions are made through hard work, and a wolf-like team is activated through determination." Let's all strive together!