Gu Ao flew to Xiangjiang again for inspection and learning, and was warmly received by Liang Jinsong.
"Why did the transformation happen so suddenly? Even if you have money, you can't think that one change will last forever. Gu Sheng, with all due respect, you know almost nothing about the luxury goods industry."
As soon as the two met, Liang Jinsong listened to Gu Kun's intention and cautiously poured some cold water on him.
This is something an old acquaintance only dares to say when he is responsible for his friends. Gu Kun's subordinates would probably only directly praise their boss's wise decision after hearing Gu Kun's decision.
Gu Kun also knew that these words sounded unreliable at first glance, so he stated his thoughts on the causes and consequences.
"...I am also doing this so that Lanfang's high-end commercial real estate in the future can have sufficient cash-out channels and facilitate high-quality investment and cash-out. You should know that although the number of tourists going to Lanfang this year is quite large, there are more than 100,000 tourists from mainland China alone.
500,000 people went to Lanfang, but the per capita consumption was too low. On average, including all expenses, including air tickets, it was only 2,000 US dollars!
How much do mainlanders spend on average when they come to Xiangjiang? Food, drink and entertainment are actually much less than in Lanzhou, but the key is to buy duty-free products! Just for pure shopping, one person should spend at least 3,000 US dollars!
GDP pull is too strong.
In the future, Lanfang must fully tap into the GDP-driving potential of these tourists, and further develop Lanfang from a tourist destination known for its beautiful scenery and an international conference destination into a shopping paradise. But we must ensure that the GDP we pull out is
If the royal family can make a big share of some of the profits, it is necessary to own some luxury brands and promote these brands obliquely.
At present, in cooperation with the Malays, I can only make some efforts in bird's nest and durian coffee, and they have not been launched yet. The categories and scale are too few."
Many readers may think that in 1998, mainlanders were not very rich and could not spend more than US$3,000 per person on a trip to Xiangjiang. This is because many people have the impression that in five or ten years, those who went to Xiangjiang would only spend an average of 100% on shopping.
So many.
However, everything Gu Kun said was absolutely true, and he had personally discovered it based on his current research.
The reason why this situation occurs has a lot to do with the relatively small number of people from the mainland coming to Hong Kong.
People who come to Xiangjiang for shopping are all taking advantage of the free trade port of Xiangjiang in order to get tax-free and cheap prices. Therefore, although there were fewer people coming to Xiangjiang in the late 1990s, everyone had to bear the need to bring goods to relatives and friends many times more.
It is rare for one or two members of a big family to come to Xiangjiang. Relatives and friends have already agreed in advance on what to bring with them, and even colleagues at work have to help. This is different from 10 years later when Xiangjiang can just leave at a moment’s notice, when everyone can just bring everything by themselves.
There is a huge difference if you buy it yourself.
In other words, when you come to Xiangjiang to buy things, you earn money when you buy them, so it has little to do with whether the tourists have money or not.
However, Liang Jinsong put forward his own views on these issues: "Isn't Lanfang also a free trade port? There are no tariffs. If you are just jealous of this part of the income, as long as the number of tourists increases, you can definitely take some away from Xiangjiang.
share.”
Gu Kun shook his head: "Lanfang has not built a large-scale high-end shopping mall before, and the quality is not high enough. It is difficult for tourists to rely on the authenticity rate of shopping like Xiangjiang.
On the other hand, most of the tourists who come to Xiangjiang nowadays enter the country by ground, right? Their cargo transportation is more convenient and they can bring large quantities of home appliances. On the other hand, almost all tourists from Lanzhou come in and out by plane, and a few people take cruise ships and carry heavy luggage.
Very restrictive.
Our Lanfang International Airport was only built and put into use in the middle of last year, so it only took a year and a half. In the first year, the supporting facilities at the airport were relatively poor, and the duty-free shops were not yet completed.
There is only one duty-free shop, but it has not yet formed a reputation among tourists, so there is nothing we can do about it.”
Contrary to the imagination of many people in later generations, the vast majority of mainland shopping trips to Xiangjiang in 1998 were actually attracted by the duty-free imported electrical appliances in Xiangjiang.
Especially at that time, there were many wealthy people from the mainland who came to Hong Kong to buy laptops.
After all, mainlanders are still not wealthy enough to generally consume luxury goods, and the size of the petty bourgeoisie-style middle class is far from large enough.
Things for women such as beauty and skin care products, jewelry, clothing, and bags that are lightweight and have high logistics net worth do not account for a large amount in the goods. On the contrary, many people are getting married or doing other important things at home, and there is a big imported one.
Color TVs and imported laptops can greatly boost your appearance.
In shopping malls in Hong Kong in 1998, the most popular items among mainland customers were the electrical appliance counters, with computers being the most popular, followed by MP3 players and digital cameras, which had just appeared and were still famous for their fashion and elegance.
Such a shopping structure means that even if Lanfang is exempt from tariffs, it will still be very difficult to compete with Xiangjiang.
If Lanfang does not develop and control some luxury brands and improve the competitiveness and profit ratio of luxury shopping, it will at best compete with Li Jiapo in the future.
The key is that the flow of people is far less than that of Lijiapo. In 1998, more than one million Chinese people passed through Lijiapo every year. Perhaps less than one-fifth of them came specifically for tourism, and the remaining 80% were for business or running.
Ships and re-exports pass through Lijiapo. However, whether they are coming to Lijiapo specifically for tourism or passing by, those people will also bring duty-free goods from Lijiapo.
Taken together, it is absolutely necessary for Gu Kun to start planning now and make efforts in two or three years.
…
Liang Jinsong initially understood the customer's needs, patiently took out a stack of equity reports, and spread them out in front of Gu Kun:
"After you called me that day, I transferred out the investment composition of Xiangjiang Investment Bank and other financial institutions in which we hold shares. If you want to exchange equity, Crocodile's crocodile, Goldlion's men's clothing, Chow Tai Fook's jewelry, Emperor, Eberle
For watches, these companies can more or less exchange for less than 15% of the equity, as long as the exchange price is right.
In the luxury goods industry, I must remind you that you must not imagine that you can just start a new brand and create a new design brand. It is okay for young hipsters with little spending power to play with new brands, but luxury cannot be afforded. Luxury is needed
It’s the historical heritage.”
Liang Jinsong didn't expect big clients to be satisfied with this, but he was entrusted by others and still recommended these lessons.
Gu Kun shook his head as expected: "Of course I know that luxury requires historical background, and I have never thought about creating my own trendy brand. I must acquire or invest in existing noble brands. However, I think these so-called famous brands in Hong Kong
If not, I think within ten years, these brands will not be able to meet the demands of mainland tourists for luxury goods and will not be high-end enough."
Gu Kun's mind is still very clear. He has never been like those delusional people who want to create a luxury brand out of thin air by relying on his personal reputation, traffic and connections in the industry.
In contrast, acquisitions and equity investments are much more feasible.
There is almost no threshold for buying shares, just like the investors in the mainland A-share market in later generations. As long as they are determined, they can buy the stocks of Qianzhou Moutai in 2016/2017. Strictly speaking, it is also a kind of access to scarce luxury goods.
Investment, and history has proven that the scarcity of the Maotai brand is very sufficient. Those who thought its stock price was too expensive when it was priced at 200 yuan were dumbfounded when it reached more than 1,000 yuan per share, but they were helpless.
.
As for the acquisition, in fact it is not as incredible as the public thinks.
For example, French Arnault, the boss of LVMH Group who later became the richest man in the world, actually most of his businesses were acquired through mergers and acquisitions and were not luxury brands developed by himself.
When Arnott started his own business, there was actually only one brand, Dior, and later LV. In Arnott's luxury empire, strictly speaking, only these two brands are biological.
Arnault started his business in the early 1980s, and until 1994 and 1995, he only relied on two "son" brands to make money and snowballed his initial accumulation. Then he acquired Givenchy, and he entered the fast lane of shopping.
Ultimately, it was because during the Cold War, the future of the luxury business was uncertain, and no one was interested in luxury.
After the end of the Cold War, the expectation of the "globalization era" made the luxury industry develop by leaps and bounds. The so-called golden age jewelry in troubled times. In addition, Arnott also saw the grassrootsization of the Internet media, so that the promotion of "the world's top brands" became
It was easy to get, so I made a desperate move and succeeded.
Readers who don’t believe this can ask themselves, especially people who have experienced the pre-Internet era - in the era without the Internet, only people who care about the luxury industry can call out those famous brands. People in every country have their own brands.
Brands that people recognize themselves.
It is the emergence of the Internet, especially the later emergence of search engines, that has led to the rapid expansion and unification of the perception of "the world's top brands". This is because even a loser can know the biggest brands today through a casual search out of curiosity.
What is.
Even if the public does not care about luxury goods, those who care about luxury goods can make them pretend to be understandable to the public, which greatly promotes the consumption motivation of those who care.
If a green tea watch shows off her wealth and buys a Hermès watch and walks on the street, and even straight men don’t recognize it, then why is she spending the unjust money?
Without the Internet, would straight men know Hermès through traditional media?
Impossible. If you rely solely on magazines, straight men will not know Ruili and Mina at all, and they will never know Hermès in their lifetime. If you rely solely on TV, straight men will change the channel the first time they see Dior, and they will not know anything about Dior.
Hermès.
There must be deduction groups, hot searches, post bars, and other channels for pretentious sharing, so that the reach rate of brand dividends can skyrocket.
Arnott is obviously the person who understands these principles most clearly, so starting from 1995, he understood the changes that the Internet has brought to brand media, and became very determined, and paid a much higher premium than other peers at the time.
Buy buy.
Because he believes that in the new Internet marketing era, these high-quality brands can expand to the point where they are more valuable than before and can be monetized many times.
Others couldn't understand, were unwilling to have such high expectations, were unwilling to acquire a competitor's equity at a high price, or they saw it too late and couldn't rob him - for example, Arnott's biggest rival in later generations, opened
Yun Group, the reason why they have fallen to the second or third place in the luxury world is because they are slow in buying and selling.
It was already 2005 when Kering joined the buy-buy war. It was because the big Italian brand "Gucci" (i) was facing the risk of a hostile takeover by Arnault. The Gucci board of directors took the initiative to seek help from Kering Group to dilute its equity, but Kering only half-heartedly gave in.
Take action.
So strictly speaking, it is definitely not too late for Gu Kun to take action now. Although he is three years later than Arnott's lvmh reaction, he is at least six years faster than Kering Group.
For him, the bigger obstacle is his identity as a Chinese. If the news that he controls certain luxury brands is exposed, will it lead to a decline in the international reputation of these brands? It's not that Gu Kun has inferiority complex.
Rather, he must consider what he should do if foreigners stop buying these brands because of national concerns.
Perhaps, he cannot spend money as aggressively as Arnott, or even be the largest shareholder. He can only divide the money and introduce strategic cooperation.