The rise and fall of Vanke's honor and disgrace: a "middle-age crisis" that Lei Jun can't save

Van Eslite, which was optimistic about Lei Jun, used to be the shackle of the electric business community. How is it now?

Put the pointer back to 2010, it is a microblogging and there is no hot search and water army, everyone is still talking about the QQ era. At that time, there was no circle of friends, but in Renren and QQ space, the Internet buzzwords were also hot and hot. Han Han’s “every object” can be regarded as a phenomenon-level buzzword of the year.

If you go deeper, Han Hanping may not wear a 29-piece T-shirt. But Han Han, who slogan "I am like you, I am a customer", let the firer who sold the 29 yuan T-shirt a fire.

At that time, Uniqlo, which was also positioned at a good price and low price, has not yet entered the Chinese market. Men have to visit the Haishu House twice a year after shopping for clothes. The shirts and T-shirts of about 100 yuan have become a clear stream. , captured a group of loyal fans.

However, after a few years, the Vans who filled the otaku's wardrobe in that year suddenly disappeared, and there was no heat at all. If it wasn't for the founder's aging, he "attacked" Jay Chou on the show last year, and let Vanke have a small fire, I am afraid that few people will think of this historic brand again.

Eslite, which was optimistic about Lei Jun, was once the leader of the electric business community.

Lei Jun’s answer to the knowledge is not too much, and most of them are related to Xiaomi. However, in his few answers, he left an important position to Van.

As an angel investor of Vanke, my opinion may not be fair. But I really think that the success of Vanke is at least 99%, unless there is a major unforgivable mistake.

In his view, the Chinese market has begun to show a trend of “consumption upgrades”. High-quality products and services will become the mainstream. Combining the e-commerce market that has just begun to flourish, Vanke has leading advantages in terms of brand and resources. .

In this way, Rebs is also a pioneer in the field of "consumption upgrades."

Indeed, the customers of the year did indeed go to the forefront of the times. Founded in 2007, Vanke initially began to imitate the online direct selling apparel brand PPG, which is the basic product with good quality and low price. From the simple and elegant T-shirts to the brightly colored sweaters, coats, canvas shoes, and the beautifully dressed models in the product catalogue, Vanke stands out among the clothing brands.

At that time, B2C e-commerce was just beginning to take off. The products and services on Taobao have not yet formed branding and systemization, but Vanke has already had its own experience in e-commerce sales. Early equipped with the whole package, 24-hour customer service, 30 days return and other services, Vanke Eslite has created the first wave of good reputation by products and services.

In addition, Vanke will also earn a lot of money for his own business. After learning about their brand tonality and major consumer groups, Vanke invited the Han Han, who represents the young man's eclectic spirit, and Wang Haodan, who was the fire of the year, to create a “every object”.

To talk about this "every object" can be regarded as a fire in the north and south of the year. Don't say that everyone on the Internet has to adapt the last sentence to them. Even the intensive offline places such as bus stops and subway stations are covered with Han Han's large posters.

If it is the person who chased the trend of the customers in the past, he may have seen Lei Jun wearing a white shirt with a smile and a smile for the guests. The use of scenery to describe the guests of the year may not be exaggerated.

In 2010, Vanke Eslite's revenue exceeded 2 billion yuan, an increase of 300% year-on-year. It ranked fourth in the e-commerce industry after JD.com, Amazon.com and Dangdang. It is not only popular with consumers, but also the darling of the investment circle.

As of July 2011, Vanke has completed seven rounds of financing, accumulating more than 420 million US dollars, the highest valuation has reached 30 to 3.2 billion US dollars, and once negotiated to go to the United States. However, from that time on, the "unicorn" gradually began to walk down the altar and enter the decline period.

Vanke's "Great Leap Forward"

In 2010, the fire of “every object” gave the guests tremendous growth momentum and confidence. At that time, the customers were somewhat hot because of their success. They set themselves a goal that they thought they were not big but it was very difficult to achieve: to complete 10 billion sales in 2011. You must know that the sales of the previous year have just exceeded 2 billion, and the next year will be 5 times faster. This is probably the courage of Liang Jingru. However, the Vanke at the time was full of enthusiasm, and it was quite a bit to refine the steel to catch up with the British Super League.

In order to increase sales, Vanke began its own rapid expansion. If the original product is single, then the category will be increased. In addition to the self-operated products such as shirts and T-shirts, Vanke will later introduce third-party products and even sell mops that are completely out of the way. According to statistics, the SKU of Vanke has once increased to 200,000, and the channel has expanded to more than 500.

In order to complete the KPI and ensure the long-term service quality of the customers, the company has also begun to significantly expand the recruitment of employees. At the peak of the period, Vanke had more than 13,000 employees, and only a few dozen executives.

On the other hand, in order to further attract users, Vanke continues to focus on advertising marketing. After the “every object”, Vanke made a marketing campaign “born in 1984”. Only this time, the abacus that wants to attract the attention of the 80s by playing with the cards is a bit biased.

Vanke said that in 1984, college students cheered "Hello Ping", Michael Jason's North American tour mobilized more than 2 million viewers, China made its debut in the Olympic Games and achieved zero breakthrough. Apple launched a historic personal computer product. Responding to George Orwell's famous novel "1984"...

It sounds like an exciting year, but for most consumers, these events are still too far away and niche. I also shouted that we are full of individuality, how suddenly was the label "born in 1984" represented? Not to mention those 85 or even 90, there is a sense of being abandoned.

It is the ambition of Vanke to continue to attract young consumers to the sword, but this time, scratching did not scratch the point.

As a result, the rapid expansion did not double the sales growth of Vanke as expected, but it brought a huge inventory backlog. In June 2010, Vanke’s total inventory was 198 million yuan; in the worst case, Vanke’s inventory was as high as 2 billion yuan and liabilities were more than one billion. The company’s net loss per month was tens of millions. .

There used to be such a famous bridge section, saying that the founder of Fanke had emptied a whole layer of office buildings, which was specially used to place the company’s backlog of clothing inventory. And when he wanted to find a shirt that could get a hand from these piles of clothes, he couldn't find a satisfactory finished product after a few turns.

So he began to realize that the van der who once wanted to complete the IPO in the shortest time is now farther and farther away from the clock. After reflection, Chen decided to move the company from the luxury office building located in the Ciqikou of Beijing to Yizhuang outside the South Fifth Ring Road. The employees were also reduced to less than 200 people, and everything started from scratch.

Literary middle-aged age, there is an idealized entrepreneurial dream

Fan Ke, the founder of Fanke, was a literary person who served as editor-in-chief of the magazine before he abandoned his pen.

The fate of him and Lei Jun, who is good at dancing and ink, began with the excellent network founded by Lei Jun. "Understanding the book" happened to be the advantage that he was taken by Lei Jun. At that time, he did not understand the Internet, nor would he use a computer to type, and he was in a state of ignorance of the e-commerce he was about to engage in. However, with his sensitivity to books and words, Chennian helped Lei Jun to achieve the industry-leading position of Joyo.

After Joyo was acquired by Amazon, Chen decided to start his own business.

For me, I just want to do one thing completely.

The brand of Fanke is built by the old and thoughtful, and is also favored by the good partner Lei Jun. In the round of angel financing, Lei Jun generously took out millions of funds to support the ageing.

Chennian is also very confident in his choice and judgment, especially after the "every object" fire, he once thought that the enthusiasm of the customers can continue to soar, and even buy Converse, LV, sell them at the same price .

The old man also set himself a "small goal": first make a 30 billion, and then go public.

Everyone knows about the later things. The Vans who fell all the way from the altar did not become the "unicorn" in the dream of the old age.

Self-expansion is the most terrible. Others can't tell you, they can't stop the car.

The literati is very good at reflection and self-criticism. Whether it is the initial stage of entrepreneurship, or the low tide of the decline of the customer, he likes to write his own experience as a book review. When accepting the interview with Ai Wen, he compared his previous impulse strategy to "sleepwalking":

The clothes I used to produce were all rubbish.

He did have a big dream. Older people who like to read philosophical and literary books attribute the main point of making clothing to aesthetics. "The more professional books are, the less useful they are. These books help to improve aesthetics, save souls, and help me become a free person."

However, the literati's thinking has brought a lot of over-idealization to the old age as an entrepreneur. For example, the lack of understanding of the product and the market itself, the formulation of the strategy is too casual and emotional. In the program of "Vicious Liang Huan Xiu" in 2016, Chen Yan even said in the program that "Jay Chou is rubbish."

Different aesthetics is personal freedom, but it is a bit wrong when you hold your favorite poet Mu Dan and the other side is trampled on others. Not to mention, this is a business leader who expects young people who like Jay Chou to give their products.

Lei Jun, who is the same age as an old man, has a different quality of engineering. Do not like to talk about ideals and emotions, Lei Jun believes in the directness and efficiency of the Internet, and uses the words "concentration, extreme, word of mouth and fast" to lay down the millennium.

And all of this must be done around the product and the service itself. Just as Lei Jun was in the same position as the platform where the customers were standing, he recognized the market development direction that Vanke had grasped, but also pointed out that if a major unforgivable mistake was made, Vanke still has 1% chance. Sex will fail.

This tiny possibility that was once used by Lei Jun as "just in case" did not come to mind.

The "significant unforgivable mistakes" committed by the old age are not enough attention in the later period. When he decided to expand blindly, the initial focus on making products seemed to be a smattering. The old man who wanted to learn Eslite Bookstore to make products seriously seemed to have lost himself in the "van of the object" and fell into the middle age of literature and art. In the fantasy.

Sometimes, dreams can make a person; sometimes, dreaming can ruin a person.

Despite a series of tests, such as IPO failures, inventory backlogs, and supply chain breaks, Vanke is still alive.

In August 2014, the quiet and long-time Vanke re-appeared and held a new product launch conference on shirts in Beijing 798. This time, the old man put his own posture to the lowest level, and repeatedly expressed his admittance to his strategy in the past few years. He also claimed that Vanke would “re-start his business” from now on.

Vanke's starting point is a cost-effective brand. This year, I seriously looked at the brand distribution and found that Chinese clothing brands have collapsed across the board because everyone did not grasp the quality. The clothing sold on the whole network is rubbish. Some people take pride in selling garbage. They are proud of the reverse inventory, and users do not need garbage.

Looking back at the product and marketing team, I found that many people are useless. But this is not the fault of the staff, it is my fault, and I am eager for success. It was also wrong to advertise and do marketing activities everywhere.

At the press conference of the day, from the selection of clothing to the non-ironing process, from the history of the shirt to the design concept, whether it is the minimalist style of PPT, or the effect of the venue, he opened the shirt release conference. Out of the mobile phone conference. Some people even ridiculed that this shirt of Vanke may have to follow the millet phone to "run a point."

More and more like Xiaomi is indeed the biggest feeling given to the people after this reincarnation. When accepting media interviews, the old man did not avoid mentioning the influence of Xiaomi and Lei Jun on himself. He also mentioned that it was the repeated in-depth exchanges with Lei Jun that touched himself and made himself think about the transformation of Vanke. .

Since then, Xiaomi’s seven-character mantra has become the principle of Vanke. Re-focusing on the product itself, narrowing down the 19 categories to T-shirts, shirts, trousers, canvas shoes, ultra-light down jackets, POLO shirts, etc., to re-do from a shirt Start.

It’s just that the only one who has painstakingly sought to change has already missed the best period.

At this time, the clothing and e-commerce market has been occupied by the more affordable Taobao Tmall; and the Uniqlo, which also focuses on the basic models, has already attracted the original benchmark consumers with more powerful combat power.

Returning to the brand itself, the choice of re-starting from the single product has gradually improved the quality of the product, but also the price is also upgraded. Vanke once launched a down jacket with a price of 1,000 yuan and a shirt of nearly 2,000 yuan, which is enough to make the original loyal fans feel "devious": Are you not a good-looking customer? Why sell it so expensive?

In this era of weak meat and strong food, I missed a small step, and the last thing I lost was probably a large piece of land.

Xiaomi, who started almost at the same time as Vanke, has now entered a new stage of product and service upgrade. Lei Jun has created Xiaomi’s “New Chinese Miracle” with his own focus on product and ultimate pursuit. The original ideas of Chen Nian and Lei Jun should not be too much, they all saw the strong demand for high quality and cost performance.

However, the old age is not Lei Jun, and the guest is not Xiaomi. Borrow a friend's words:

More often, you have too many opponents who are looking at you, waiting for you to make mistakes. When you are in a hot head, maybe it is when they are struggling to catch up.

Editor in charge: Wang Zhen