Adi's suggestions really opened up some new ideas for Gu Kun, allowing him to see new possibilities in his original luxury strategy.
It can only be said that there are specialties in the art industry, and relying solely on personal foresight is sometimes not comprehensive enough.
Co-branded fashion/luxury brand cooperation models are the most common in later generations, usually when big luxury brands want to support their top designers.
Let’s take the designers of the world’s most famous brands as an example.
For example, Givenchy, a brand owned by LVMH, wants to support its chief designer Galeazzo, so it will release a joint model between Donkey and Galeazzo, Givenchy and Galeazzo. Historically, in the following years,
That's exactly what Bernard Arnott ordered.
In the same way, Gucci of the later Kering Group also praised McQueen in the same way. Then a few years later, McQueen became an independent personal brand.
Although Gu Kun is not a designer, he belongs to a top personal brand in the field of sports fashion. If he co-brands with Adidas, Lan Fang will benefit more in a short period of time.
Specifically, future co-branded brands can emphasize in publicity that they “fully use German science and technology, quality management and process flow”.
These links are where German products are relatively famous, especially when Gu Kun will focus on the Chinese market in the future. The stereotype of Chinese people around 2000 is still at the level of "there are oily paper bags in the sewers of Qingdao", and there is no need for German technology and German industry.
Germany is quite superstitious about quality.
At that time, there was a domestic brand of home decoration and building materials called Oudian, which sold flooring. It was a typical false propaganda, promoting itself as a German brand. In the end, it was fined 7.5 million yuan by the Beijing Industrial and Commercial Bureau - it was detected that Oudian's flooring did not
Any quality issues, publicity about quality and workmanship are met
.But even if the place of production must be close to German products, this kind of German products is quite effective. At least in the years before it was exposed and punished, Oudi flooring once became the quality benchmark in the domestic flooring industry, which shows that Chinese people still believe in this.
, as soon as I say you are from Germany, I think your quality is as high as Kohler faucets.
This superstition that "German products = good quality" will not be eradicated for at least ten years. Gu Kun vaguely remembers that starting from about the 2010s, after the quality of domestic products did improve, some people gradually refuted the rumors and erased the reputation of German products.
Quality halo.
The area where Germans don’t have such a good impression on Chinese people may be the art and design part, so there is no need to promote German designers in the design process.
Gu Kun feels that this matter can be analyzed in detail in the future.
Design is also divided into industrial design and artistic design. As a sports brand, the technical content of various products sold is different, and the degree of reliance on industrial design is also different.
For example, the technological content of shoes is relatively high, so when selling shoes, you can emphasize more on German industrial design.
But when it comes to sportswear, and even swimwear, the technology content is not that high. For one-piece sharkskin competition swimsuits, you can also emphasize Adidas industrial design. As for bikinis that are purely for beauty and fashion, there is no need. You can emphasize that they are all designed by Asians.
Artists perform artistic design.
The general principle is that in areas where Germans give people the impression of superiority, let's use the Adi co-branding. In areas where Germans do not give people the impression of superiority, Gu Kun will let his own people do it.
…
Gu Kun roughly had a showdown with Mr. Dassler about the scope and scale of the joint name he wanted.
The other party was quite happy and did not force any private goods to be added. Basically, the attitude was "You can promote the joint selling points that you want to promote, and we can shelve the parts that you don't want to promote."
This can be regarded as the greatest goodwill for Gu Kun's previous cooperation. After all, Gu Kun helped them suppress Nike temporarily.
Co-branding is not something that can be established so quickly. Gu Kun needs to prepare, and Adidas needs to wait for a suitable opportunity. Therefore, for at least half a year, Adidas will be the one who gets the benefits, asking Gu Kun for the details of the co-branding method.
It would be normal to make more concessions.
After roughly agreeing on the scope of the joint venture, the only detail Gu Kun needed to pay attention to was the time limit.
Gu Kun also knows that in the era after the popularization of the Internet, the Matthew effect of winner-take-all will intensify.
He can currently suppress Nike once, causing the opponent to suffer a setback and lose two or three years.
But if Adidas does not make drastic changes in its management and design in the future, it may end up losing to Nike in the long run.
Historically, 20 years later, the market value of the two has been ten times different. Adidas cannot even maintain the second place in the world in its field, and can only barely stay at the third place in the world, surpassed by brands like Anta.
(Note: Just because the market value exceeds that, it does not mean that Anta's quality and brand quality also exceed that of Adidas. Anta's market value is supported by market share, which means it sells more at a lower price.)
Gu Kun felt that if Adi was allowed to continue co-signing, it might become a drag and burden in the long run.
"Historically, it seems that until around 2005, Adidas' status in the world was no less than that of Nike. This should be because the period from 2001 to 2004 was the Internet winter, so the winner-take-all effect did not intensify. Until 2010, Nike's domestic position was
It can be regarded as a setting that has always been the 'second sports brand in the world'. Well, why not just sign a co-branding term of five to ten years."
Gu Kun thought about this in his mind for a long time, and in the meantime he asked Mr. Dassler to play a game of tennis on the yacht to delay the situation and test his tone.
Finally, Gu Kun put forward his formal idea: "Mr. Dassler, I hope to agree on the time and scope within the long-term strategic cooperation framework jointly signed by both parties. I think it is more appropriate to sign for ten years, and every
The scope of application of the joint name can be renegotiated every five years.
After the expiration of ten years, both parties can decide how to extend it in the spirit of friendly negotiation and mutual benefit. It is too late this year. I will spend a few months making some preparations. The joint period will start from New Year's Day, 2001.
It will end on New Year's Day in 2011. However, during this Christmas season, we can do some pre-publicity for the joint name in advance."
"Ten years of co-branding?" Dassler did not feel offended. Perhaps the current situation of Adidas gave him confidence and made him not sensitive at all. He even joked:
"Gu, don't you think that in 10 years, your personal brand will grow to be more powerful than Adidas? Or do you think that Adidas will counterattack the popularity of your brand?"
Gu Kun: "Of course I didn't mean that. I just said that there are too many possibilities in the future, and I haven't done anything yet. I haven't even decided whether to spend money to establish a sports fashion brand. It would be too long to sign a contract at once.
Isn’t it too strange?”
Dassler did not see the conspiracy and just nodded: "It is right to be cautious. The ten-year cooperation period and the scope of cooperation will be changed every five years. In fact, it is already very long. Okay, I agree to this clause. Next month, I will
The legal affairs department will come to Lanzhou to sign the contract, or your people will come to Frankfurt. I hope that within a month, you will have done all the relevant registration and preparation work."
"Then it's settled."
Gu Kun chatted with the other party for a while, then left the other party to play around on the yacht, treated the other party to lunch, filled up the fuel of the other party's DH-90 helicopter and performed maintenance inspections, and then sent the other party off to take off.
On the return trip, because the yacht sailed north for another four or five hours, it was closer to New Caledonia. The helicopter only needed to sail 200 nautical miles for the return trip.
…
"Boss, will our subsequent voyage follow the same route we came from and return the same way we came? If so, we should turn westward now. After Mr. Dassler took off just now, the captain's cabin came to ask for instructions.
"
After Gu Kun returned to the lounge, the female secretary Saranova immediately came over to ask for instructions.
"Bring the chart, and call Minister Tang." Gu Kun was not busy making a decision, he just asked his secretary to prepare.
Saranova immediately made an internal call and then took a chart and placed it on Gu Kun's desk.
Gu Kun looked at the chart and thought about it in his mind.
Originally, he could have returned the same way, that would be the fastest.
However, when I came here this time, I met a group of Indonesian fishermen on the road and harassed them a little. Although because of the escort of the "Yonghua", those guys who didn't open their eyes did not dare to actually make trouble in the end, but they aroused
Gu Kun had the idea of doing chivalry and righteousness and regaining his international prestige.
Strictly speaking, the direct benefits of this matter are not very large. It can only enhance the status of Lanzhou within ASEAN and appear to have a strong sense of international responsibility. It can gain more from fishery cooperation and other related industrial cooperation with Southeast Asian countries.
Dominance.
In addition, it can also improve the high-end positioning and quality of Lanfang's seafood industry, which will give some impetus to Lanfang's tourism.
It doesn't cost much to do this. The only problem is that it's hard to find an excuse.
Gu Kun was going to Australia to participate in the Olympics this time, so he passed by by chance. If the other party didn't have the guts to provoke him, he could just kill him.
If you miss this opportunity for "legitimate defense" and want to cause trouble next time, you will be "proactively provoking the Indonesian side." You can no longer be so confident, and the Indonesian side will not be able to withstand the pressure of Indonesia's international relations.
Gu Kun probably would never "pass by" such a poor place again in his life, because he would never go to Australia again for the rest of his life.
After all, you only have a few hundred thousand permanent residents, so why challenge a country with a population of two to three billion? It is very important to be 100% justified in terms of justice and honor.
However, after the Olympics, European luxury goods tycoons who were eager to "share the spoils" and transfer benefits to him were all waiting in line.
If Gu Kun didn't return to Lanfang immediately, or resolve the "justifiable defense" with the Indonesians before going back, either they would be unable to wait, or it would easily lead to "the price of chips was raised only once", which is a bit uneconomical.
.
After thinking about it again and again, Gu Kun finally decided: "On my return trip, I will dock in Port Moresby, New Guinea for a few days, call Mr. Giorgio Armani and several other business partners, and tell them that I am in Moresby."
Piraeus Port, let them fly over to see me. We will not go ashore, we will park on the ship in the port, finish negotiating the follow-up business, and then return to the country."
"Okay boss, I'll make arrangements right away." Saranova agreed immediately.
Two days later, Gu Kun's ship sailed from south to north across the entire east coast of Australia, left the Great Barrier Reef, left the Coral Sea, and arrived in Port Moresby.
Giorgio Armani himself also rushed to Port Moresby within 48 hours without stopping, and brought several confidants with him in the company. During this period, he had to change planes three times before arriving in a small place like Port Moresby.