Image source: vision china

Blue whale financial reporter Wang Hanyi

On January 4th, "Joker Xue clothing brand down jacket is unqualified" boarded a hot search, which triggered a heated discussion. In this regard, the brand apologized overnight and said that it could apply for a refund. It is not uncommon for stars to set foot in the clothing industry, and there are also many people who cause doubts and group ridicule. Why are entertainment stars easy to "roll over" as clothing brands?

In fact, behind the strong brand exposure, the lack of control over the complete commercial link is a very important reason.

Dangerous People down jacket failed the sampling inspection.

According to the reporter of Blue Whale Finance and Economics, recently, Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau announced two batches of unqualified down jacket products, among which, Shanghai Yanxun Trading Co., Ltd. sold "DANGEROUS PEOPLE" brand short down (model specification: 175/88al; Article number: 22410DJ287N), the filler nonylphenol+octylphenol+nonylphenol polyoxyethylene ether+octylphenol polyoxyethylene ether is measured to be 234.41mg/kg (the standard value should be < ＜100mg/kg), which is inconsistent with the standard requirements.

Image source: Shanghai Market Supervision WeChat WeChat official account screenshot

"Alkylphenol (AP) and alkylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (APEO) are environmental hormones. The unqualified project will easily affect the normal hormone secretion of the human body. " The Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau pointed out.

On January 4th, Weibo, the official of Dangerous People, issued a statement letter on the results of random inspection by Shanghai Market Supervision Bureau, which mentioned that "after rapid self-inspection, it was found that the unqualified product was the sixth batch of this product. The company immediately contacted the production company and asked it to stop producing the product and conduct self-inspection. At the same time, the company has also cancelled the follow-up cooperative production relationship with the production company about the product. "

Image source: Dangerous People official Weibo

The statement letter also mentioned that consumers who have purchased the product after January 1, 2023 can apply for a refund through the original purchase channel, and the company will refund the money for consumers as soon as possible.

On a social media platform, some netizens posted a successful refund page and said, "I bought it in January 2023 and returned it in less than 10 minutes after contacting customer service."

Dangerous People (hereinafter referred to as "DSP") is a menswear brand launched by Joker Xue in 2015. According to a survey by Blue Whale Finance reporter, as of January 8th, its Tmall store had 1.89 million fans and its JD.COM store had 549,000 followers. Except for the new black box product launched this year, the price exceeds 1300 yuan, and the prices of other products are between 199 yuan and 499 yuan. The pricing is relatively close to the people, and the sales volume is considerable. The down jacket has sold over 10,000 pieces per month at the highest.

Eye-catching shows that Shanghai Yanxun Trading Co., Ltd. changed its investor (equity) in January 2019, and Joker Xue withdrew from the ranks of shareholders and added Xin Liang, who is now jointly held by Xin Liang and Zhang Fan.

Although he has retired from the ranks of shareholders, Joker Xue is still the brand manager of DSP, and often appears in the live broadcast room to promote the products.

Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, told Blue Whale Finance reporter that the problems in the sampling inspection of Joker Xue brand down jackets may be caused by quality problems in the production process or inadequate supply chain management, which makes the products fail to meet the standards.

Stars create many brands, but few break through.

Star street track has been in a state of "supply exceeds demand". Whether it is mainstream artists such as Joker Xue and Bai Jingting, idol stars such as Z.TAO and Dylan, or rappers Ma Siwei and KNOWKNOW Know who have gradually entered the public’s field of vision in recent years, many artists are running their own clothing brands.

Jiang Han believes that on the one hand, many stars have a strong interest in fashion and fashion design, and they hope to show their fashion taste and design concept through their own brands; On the other hand, stars themselves have high popularity and influence. They can promote their brands through their popularity and attract fans and other consumers to buy them. In addition, clothing brands have high profit margins, and stars can get higher economic benefits by making their own brands.

The business dividend brought by "Artist’s Aura" made the stars focus on the clothing business. Depending on the star’s personal influence and fan base, the initial stage can certainly empower brands well, and some brands may be able to gain a foothold.

But the opposite of the advantage also means higher attention, and fans will have higher requirements and expectations for the products. Many star brands are considered to be cutting leeks because of price, quality and after-sales service, and many brands are forced to close down before they are on the right track.

Previously, Lu Han’s personal fashion brand was questioned by fans about the clothes he bought for 1,500 yuan, which were "full of threads".

Nabi, Nana Ou-yang’s own brand, was once caught in the same controversy. A pure white nightgown of 988 yuan and two pairs of pure white cotton socks of 168 yuan were touted as "sky-high price". In addition, the composition of the nightgown is 86% polyester fiber, 13% viscose fiber and 1% spandex. The main material polyester fiber is also recognized as "cheap fabric" in the industry. Some netizens believe that, on the whole, nabi pajamas are not sincere enough in all aspects from fabric, pattern to workmanship. A survey by the Blue Whale Financial Reporter found that the nabi applet has stopped operating.

If the cold reception of nabi brand is a temporary misjudgment of the consumer market by Nana Ou-yang and other new generation stars, then the gradual disappearance of many old brands shows that it is not a simple way for stars to start their own brands.

At the beginning of 2023, the Shawn Yue personal brand MADNESS, which was founded for more than 8 years, reported the closure of the Tmall store; Edison Chen’s personal brand JUICE also withdrew from Sanlitun after seven years of operation; Mayday A Xin and STAYREAL, a street brand founded by illustrator Buliang, also have the action of closing offline stores and so on.

In this regard, Jiang Han analyzed: "First, stars may lack professional knowledge and experience in the clothing industry, resulting in inadequate supply chain management in the production process; Second, the brand positioning is not clear, and the product style and price are out of touch with the market, which leads to consumers not buying it; Third, over-reliance on the star effect, the product itself lacks core competitiveness, when the star effect gradually weakens, it is difficult for the brand to maintain good market performance; Fourth, the competition in the clothing market is fierce, and there are many brands at home and abroad. Star clothing brands need to face fierce competition with other brands. A little carelessness may lead to poor market performance. "

Lack of complete commercial link control

Why are star clothing brands easy to "roll over"? What is the operation mode behind the star clothing brand business?

The White Paper on the Development of Trend Culture published by CBNData points out: "Some stars create a brand first, and then hand it over to the outsourcing team. They don’t understand the trend culture, and blindly doing it will be counterproductive."

Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of Ai Media Consulting, said that at present, most star brand business can be understood as OEM business. In the whole business process, most stars actually don’t understand the brand business, but hand it over to brokerage companies or other partners. Stars mainly play the role of drainage and are responsible for front-end traffic. Zhang Yi believes that this is one of the reasons why most star street brands are not very successful.

Take nabi, a brand in Nana Ou-yang, as an example. Stick Stack, the agency behind it, is a company whose main business is the operation and incubation of international fashion brands.

Judging from the brand model created by Joker Xue, it also relies on third-party factories for OEM. Although OEM is a very common production mode, it also means that the brand needs to supervise and control the product line more strictly.

Strong exposure is the first step for the brand to go out of the circle. How to quickly adjust tactics to cope with the changing market is the key factor for the long-term development of the brand.

Cheng Weixiong, a senior brand management expert and founder of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd., told Blue Whale Finance: "Only a star IP person can set up a brand, and a brand should have its own unique style and tonality. If you are a buyer, you should make corresponding purchases according to the brand’s own style and tonality; Or don’t be a buyer, have your own design and R&D team, do a good job in the research and development of styles, then do a good job in the screening of corresponding factories, and finally place an order, and at the same time conduct QC follow-up after-sales. Without the follow-up means and measures before, during and after delivery,’ rollover’ is inevitable. "

Zhang Yi suggested that stars should first have a strong supply chain as a support, and the quality should be guaranteed at the same time when the price is high. "No matter what products are made, all premiums should be supported by product quality, otherwise it is likely to backfire and bite the stars themselves."

It is true that in the clothing business, stars should be familiar with the whole commercial link of products from production to sales, and the different requirements of different nodes are responsible for the results.

After all, marketing is only a small part of the whole business chain.