Why Did Skech Focus On The Layout Of The Three Or Four Tier Cities?

Recently, American sports brand Skech (SKECHERS) and Shanghai dance brand CASTER announced that the 2019 B.I.S&SKECHERS WORLD WARS hip hop competition was officially launched. According to the China Commercial Daily reporter, in recent years, Cage has entered the Chinese young consumer market by sponsoring entertainment programs and hip hop competitions. Skech Asia Pacific CEO Chen Weili said Cage will focus on the layout of China's three or four tier cities in the future.

　　 China's young consumer market

China is one of Skech's most important strategic markets. In 2017, Skech opened a brand flagship store in Chengdu, covering an area of 1300 square meters.

Last year, Skech opened nearly 3000 square meters of super store in Shenyang, which has become the largest flagship store in Asia. At present, eight super stores have been settled in China. "Cage is continuing to base himself on China and integrate into China." Chen Weili previously said in a media interview.

In Chen Weili's view, China's young consumers have strong purchasing power and demand for sports and casual clothes. In order to occupy the young consumer market, Skech publicized entertainment programs and street dance competitions.

It is reported that Cage and CASTER already established partnership in 2014. In addition to supporting the street dance competition, Cage will hold a large floor dance activity in many cities in China every year. Since last April, the Cage street dance academy has started from Beijing Railway Station and has gone to Shenyang, Guangxi, Guangdong, Henan, Xinjiang, Jiangsu and Shandong.

In addition to the street dance competition, Skech also sponsored entertainment programs, such as Youth League training program "creative camp 2019", "the name of the regiment", "idols", and so on. Cage, director of public relations, told the China Commercial Daily reporter that on the choice of programs, the company preferred to fill the youthful vigor and vitality of the program, such a program is in line with Cage's advocating trend of brand appeal.

Skech, vice president of China market and store development, Zhang Ruiyan said young people are willing to try new things, but loyalty is relatively low. Skech will continue to invest, deepen youth culture, read young people's ideas, choose the right way to eliminate estrangement, and further dialogue with young people.

　　 Layout of three or four line cities

It is worth noting that since Cage entered the Chinese market in 2007, he did not imitate Adidas and Nike's strategy to seize a core commercial section of a second tier city, but chose to open a super large shop in the three or four tier cities.

Chen Weili said that this year, the core business of Si Cage China is the market sink, and the super store is one of the important landing carriers.

According to the reporter, Skech's super store opened in Jinhua, Zhejiang is located on the first floor of Wanda Plaza, east of Li Yu East Road, Jinhua east area, covering an area of 2200 square meters. For the locals, Jindong District is one of the most potential development zones in the city, and Wanda Plaza belongs to the landmark building in the area. It can be seen that this Cage super large shop will be the whole new urban area and even the whole city of Jinhua.

It is undeniable that the three or four line cities have a lot of space for development. According to the development goal of the new national urbanization plan (2014-2020 years) in 2014, it is estimated that the urbanization rate of permanent residents in China will reach about 60% by 2020. Along with the development of urbanization, the expansion of clothing retail channels under the main lines such as department stores and shopping centers in the three or four line cities has also led to the rapid subsidence and development of international brands including Skech in the three or four line cities.

But according to the reporter, the competition pressure of our three or four tier cities should not be underestimated. After the number of shops in the second tier cities is saturated, shops such as Nike, Adidas and other international sports brands are gradually sinking into other cities, while domestic sports brands such as Anta, XTEP and 361 degrees are also gradually expanding.

A Chinese Garment Association, a reluctant expert, told the China Daily News that for garment enterprises, the second tier cities had high pressure due to high rental and personnel costs. Young consumers in the three or four tier cities have strong spending power, which is conducive to brand promotion, but also pay attention to the different marketing strategies of other sports brands. The competition will become more and more crowded and differentiated competition will become more and more difficult. In addition, nowadays sports and casual wear are becoming more and more closely related to fashion. How to keep young consumers loyal to the brand is also a matter for enterprises to ponder.