Back to the prime of life

Chapter 205 Features
When Lu Changge woke up in the morning, his head still felt throbbing. Yesterday, he had drunk a little too much at the dinner table with his new friends for the first time.

I felt much better after taking a hot shower after getting up.

As he was drying his hair with a towel, the doorbell rang. When he opened the door, he was surprised to see Han Jiayi.

Lu Changge was a little surprised, "Isn't today the weekend? What are you doing here at this hour?"

“Our department has undergone some changes, and they involve me. The boss said I shouldn’t show up recently to avoid causing unrest. There’s even a possibility that I’ll be transferred from Shanghai later. You have a very good drinking habit. At first, I thought you hadn’t drunk much, but then I found out you were just putting on a brave face, so I came to check on you. I also brought you some porridge.”

"I was found out anyway. To be honest, I don't remember at all how I fell asleep afterwards."

"It's alright, not annoying. I just fell asleep while we were talking."

"It's good that he didn't say anything inappropriate."

Han Jiayi shook her head. Lu Changge hadn't really lost his composure much after drinking, which made her feel a little regretful.

Drinking some porridge and eating something light in the morning does make you feel much more comfortable. Lu Changge swallowed several large mouthfuls and felt even more refreshed.

Looking around, Han Jiayi, who didn't go to work today, was wearing a light yellow sleeveless dress. Her exposed arms were as white and smooth as lotus roots, and she looked especially pure with every smile and frown.

Lu Changge had intended to tease her, but fate was unkind, and Xu Huiya called.

This woman was much less amusing; she immediately launched into rigid theories about investment returns and company valuations. And she kept talking non-stop, completely unaware that a beautiful woman was waiting for Lu Changge in his room.

The phone call lasted about fifteen minutes, and by the end, the atmosphere in the room had completely died down.

Han Jiayi also formally inquired about the development of Lu Mang Company, and the final result was truly regrettable.

Of course, the idea that the emperor would no longer hold court in the morning was just a joke. Lu Changge quickly dressed and went to see Xu Huiya.

As investors who invested 40 million RMB in him, they would try their best to consider any requests made by Lu Changge, as long as they didn't want so much money to go down the drain.

During her trip to Shanghai, she took the initiative to meet the owner of JD.com, while Lu Changge was passive. In fact, he had another initiative.

I had mentioned it to her before, asking her to help me introduce a manager who could build a clothing brand.

Lu Changge didn't want this person to replace Chen Xiaohe in managing the entire company; rather, he wanted to find a professional assistant for Chen Xiaohe to be in charge of brand building.

In this respect, no one at Lumang Company is professional.

Lu Changge himself might know a little bit about it, and he had experience building high-end swimming pools, but high-end brands actually have a strong brand identity: expensive, which in turn can be associated with prestige and so on. To put it bluntly, it means you can see the enemy.

Kelumang focuses on affordable clothing, but it's not easy to be cheap while still having brand power.

To be honest, he himself didn't know where to start.

"Are you going back to Jiangzhou?" Han Jiayi thought he had packed up and was about to leave.

"Not yet, I still have some things to take care of in Shanghai. Are you free? Would you like to come with me?"

"Your matters are all important, right? I'm not an employee of your company, is it appropriate for me to be listening to your company's affairs?"

Lu Changge laughed and said, "A proven business model and a company that has already achieved some success, would it go bankrupt just because you, a young girl, know a little bit about the inside story? It's okay, come with me and take a look. Maybe it will be helpful for your future work."

Han Jiayi understood what he meant; Lu Changge's level was now different from hers.

After half an hour.

The three of them met at a teahouse by an unnamed lake. The place was quite stylish, with the lake water shimmering and willows swaying in the wind.

Hsu Hui-ya kept glancing at her phone, looking very anxious.

Lu Changge said, "I'm the one waiting for someone, why are you in such a hurry?" "I have a boss assigning me work, but you don't, so of course you're not in a hurry."

Han Jiayi chuckled to herself. In her eyes, Xu Huiya was a sophisticated urban woman, but she never expected her to have this side to her.

Fortunately, the person who came didn't keep them waiting too long.

The company this person works for is a partner that Hsu Hui-ya has worked with. He is a fashion designer by training and has actually worked in a fashion brand building team.

It can be said that Hsu Hui-ya was very accurate in her choice of partner.

I already told him his name, it's Min Xiuwen.

Upon meeting him, Lu Changge felt that his name suited his image very well. He was indeed a very cultured and refined person. He was said to be in his thirties, but he was dressed very professionally and neatly, looking like a man in his twenties.

She was tall and had a good figure, which even made Lu Changge feel that her looks were threatened.

When strangers meet, they inevitably have to introduce themselves and exchange polite greetings. Fortunately, Xu Huiya was there as an intermediary. She informed both parties in advance, so Min Xiuwen knew who Lu Changge was and what he did.

After this step, let's get down to business.

He first raised a question because he didn't understand why an e-commerce company would try to poach him. "Mr. Lu, as far as I know, there are many people selling clothing in e-commerce, but almost no one has tried to build a brand. Even your competitors haven't mentioned this at all."

“His understanding is different from others,” Xu Huiya interjected.

Lu Changge wasn't in a hurry. This issue needed to be explained properly. Ordinary employees were easy to find, but truly talented people were not. They all had career plans and wouldn't follow you recklessly just because of a few words or short-term gains.

For these people, work has become a career.

"Well, it's true that our company does e-commerce, and we sell affordable clothing, but I do have some understanding of the clothing industry. I met with the boss of JD.com a couple of days ago. Outsiders or people who don't know much about us might think we're similar companies, but when we sat down and talked in detail, we found that we're completely different."

His kind of e-commerce is what people generally understand as e-commerce; essentially, it's an online supermarket. But Lu Mang isn't a supermarket; it's an online clothing store. And the most fundamental aspect of the clothing industry is brand. That's my understanding, and it might be wrong. But from observing how people around me buy clothes, I know that unbranded clothes are just ordinary and it's hard for them to survive in the long run. With branded clothes, even if consumers know the cost is only 100 yuan, they're still willing to spend 500 yuan to buy it.

That's the difference!
Currently, the main reason for Lumang Company's rapid sales growth is its low prices. These low prices come from two sources: extremely low supply prices during special window periods and low costs resulting from not having physical stores. As for our own marketing methods, although they are somewhat useful, they are not the core element.

I actually noticed this early on, which is why I positioned Lumang towards young people and adopted the slogan "Dare to dream and act." However, Lumang is a relatively new brand, and consumers have known about it for even less time, so brand power is practically nonexistent. But we couldn't afford not to do it; otherwise, we would lose our chance to profit in the future.

As Lu Changge spoke, Xu Huiya smiled confidently and said to Min Xiuwen, "President Lu is a big celebrity now. Many people on the internet regard him as an entrepreneurial idol. Lu Mang Company has grown from just a few people to several hundred now, and its monthly sales have increased from over 100 million to over 2000 million last month. Moreover, it is still growing rapidly. But our President Lu is already thinking about the company's deeper crisis."

Although she called it a crisis, Min Xiuwen realized that she was actually praising Lu Changge.

At the most basic level, it's truly remarkable that a very young man can achieve such success so quickly, and still remain rational and aware of the potential crisis.

“The apparel industry is highly competitive, and building a brand is not an easy task.”

Lu Changge said, "Of course, otherwise Mr. Xu and I wouldn't be here today. Lu Mang Company is a newly established company, and we are still completely clueless about how to build a brand. So we need someone. If Mr. Min doesn't mind, you can also talk to us about what the difficulties are."

Min Xiuwen realized that this was actually a test for him.

"Brand building, in essence, is a process of weaving a network of meaning. In this process, it is necessary to transform products into cultural mediums and build an emotional community on top of functional value. In plain terms, if your clothing brand were a person, would it be an artistic youth, a tech geek, or a rebellious punk?"
If this positioning is successful, a loyal customer base will automatically be formed. For this group, you have brand power. At that point, they see the clothes not just as clothes, but also appreciate the emotional value the brand represents. For example, Arc'teryx told the story of its legendary mountaineering gear, and instantly became a well-known sports brand.

But this is difficult. Emotional resonance isn't something that can be achieved simply by telling a story.

Moreover, for a new company like Lumang, there are two major challenges. First, its current pricing is too low, trapping it in a cheap image and making a turnaround difficult. Second, as a fast-fashion brand, it needs constant innovation; in other words, it lacks a portfolio of original designs to build a strong brand image.

After listening, Lu Changge didn't feel that it was a big challenge at all. On the contrary, he was quite proud. He said to Xu Huiya, "You see, the explanation from a professional is different. I only knew that there was a crisis involved, but when others explained it, you could tell that there was a lot of work to be done. Emotional community, this thing is no less difficult than a loser winning over a goddess."

Min Xiuwen smiled and said, "Although it's not a very appropriate analogy, the meaning is similar. No matter how difficult things are, there will always be gains if you do them. Moreover, President Lu has already laid the groundwork in this regard. Although being young and impetuous is not a good word, it is at least a characteristic. In our industry, there is a saying: it's better to be niche to the point of being wildly loved than to be mediocre to the point of being disliked by everyone."

Features, features are the most important thing!
(End of this chapter)