Fashion design. Developing a Small Fashion Brand in the Chinese Market

DEVELOPING A SMALL FASHION BRAND IN THE CHINESE MARKET
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Developing a Small Fashion Brand in the Chinese Market
There are more and more excellent independent designers who have their styles and create their brands. But what we can see is that although these niche brands are no less exquisite than the big brands with a long history, their designs can be said to be unique and gorgeous, but still not well known to the public. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how niche brands can become better-known brands through limited platform publicity. The first part is about the reasons why the niche brands are not recognized by the public, their advantages and disadvantages and the needs of the society. The second part is about their current propaganda mode. The third is to use specific data to describe some of the popular brand publicity platforms in China and their publicity methods available. Finally, it is a particular solution model, how to make their brand under the limited resources to get strong publicity.
Background Research
The research mainly focuses on Minna Parikka Shoes Limited. It is a fashion design brand for high-end shoes and women accessories from Helsinki, Finland. The company was founded in 2005, but its global ventures appear to be the key drivers in its production expansions. In the past few years, Minna Parikka established a new market in China. Its retail stores are currently located in Beijing and Hangzhou, but there are calls for expansion in the Chinese territory. For a sustainable business development, Minna Parikka there is a need for a thorough market research. The host country, China, is currently influential in the global economy. Its markets present a wide range of opportunities that can be attributed to its open investment policies. Many multi-national companies are highly attracted in expanding their global businesses into the Chinese market in the recent past.
For Minna Parikka to gain the reputation and royalty from the Chinese consumers, it has to overcome the competitive challenges posed by the existing firms. Gaining a significant market share in the Chinese market will be a great challenge for the company. It requires an extensive understanding of the trends in Chinese markets and its demographics. Recent studies indicate that the Chinese fashion market is expanding at a high rate due to the increasing population of middle-class and affluent individuals (Zhang and Kim, 2013). These groups are expected to constitute of about 140 million individuals by the year 2020. At the same time, China is believed to make more than a quarter of the global growth in the fashion market in the next five years.
Chinese market leads to global sales of luxury goods. Similarly, its citizens constitute the largest consumers of luxury consumers in global scales. But the definition of luxury brands in the Chinese markets transformed from the traditional prime and over-decorated items into a low-key, comfortable and elegant fashion designs (Simona, 2005. The Chinese consumers, especially the females, are recently in the pursuit of luxury fitness instead of the traditional flashy and cumbersome dressing. The other emerging fashion concept n Chinese market is the tide brand that is commonly embraced by consumers between early twenties and early thirties.
The demand for high-end footwear has been on a constant growth, a phenomenon that can be linked to increased disposable income and rapid economic growth in China. Several global players in the shoe industries have established diverse footwear brands in the Chinese market (Rocha, Hammond, and Hawkins, 2005). Although the government's open policy facilitates the easy entrance of international firms, high taxations for luxury and high-grade brands of certain goods discourage the small and emerging companies. The Chinese footwear industry is characterized by a high threat of substitute products, especially from the local brands. Consumers' needs are best met by the local brands and therefore have a higher bargaining power in relations to imported footwear (Miller and Mills, 2012). China is relatively a giant in the exportation of footwear. As a result, the intensity of competitive rivalry and suppliers’ bargaining power is way higher compared to foreign developed countries such as Spain, Italy, or Finland.
Data Research and Analysis
Internal and Situational Analysis of Minna Parikka Shoes Ltd
Both SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis can be used to determine Minna Parikka’s internal and external forces that can influence its business development process in the Chinese market. SWOT analysis will illustrate the strengths and opportunities that the company can use to overcome its weaknesses and possible threats. The company can harness sufficient strength for market survival from its epic and high-end designs. Minna Parikka can use its famous design to place its products in a better competitive position against its competitors and thrive in the fashion industry in China. Most of its product’s designs and color advocate for femininity and can be warmly welcomed by women in pursuit of pride and happiness. The company is well-known for its specialized skills in hand-made leather products. Its products are made up of genuine leather and artistic skills for the best quality and appealing design.
Being a new entrant in the Chinese market, Minna Parikka Shoes Ltd suffers from several weaknesses. The company was founded recently and its short history of business operation is disadvantageous. It decreases its opportunities of thriving in international markets in some countries such as China (Kymäläinen, 2018). It has no established business strategies or experience of the Chinese market. This exposes the company to various obstacles and challenges when running and expanding their business operations in China. Unless the company seeks relations assistance, business expansion in China will be highly challenging. Again, the company has rare entries in the Chinese biggest search engines, Baidu.com, and does not feature in the influential Chinese social circle, Sina Weibo. Indeed, it is a major weakness because it limits the company’s reputation and consumer awareness about their brands. Unlike other globally famous fashion brands, Minna Parikka brands are rarely featured in newspapers, magazines, and common advertisement platforms with easier and frequent public access (Pelkonen, 2017).
Being a new entrant also brings along various opportunities for Minna Parikka Shoes Ltd. The Chinese market is a new venture and the company can use it as an opportunity for growing and establishing its business as early as it is required. The company is its early stages of global expansion and therefore has the time and resources to come up with concrete business expansion strategies that consider the market and consumer demands in China. The company should not only focus on operating in a single market niche but should also seek ways and opportunities for expanding its products and establish wide-spread consumers. Minna Parikka products are characterized by a wide variety of innovations that cut across different specific styles for its various target consumers (Vänskä, 2012). Its ever-evolving brands are often exhibited alongside other famous fashion brands in popular global stages.
The main threat for Minna Parikka arises from the fierce Chinese competition. In the Chinese shoe industry, the company competes with several worldwide brands from Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, among others. Some of these brands had already established reputation and loyalty amongst the affluent Chinese consumers before the entry of Minna Parikka in China. The company not only competes with international shoe companies but also with thousands of local firms in the...