Coach is optimistic about China's online marketing launch its Chinese website

Hampton, the famous summer resort in the United States, has never been mediocre. It is full of luxury villas and exquisite shops. For many people, Hampton represents the ultimate in the United States: The great abundance of materials makes people's lives carefree, and humility and prudence do not have a place to live here. However, when the stock market began to plummet, after the Bear Stearns collapsed, the turmoil of the economic recession swept through here.

In July 2008, the fog of depression was spreading. Coach executives gathered at No. 69, Central Street, Hampton, Eastampton. The company’s secret annual meeting was held on the second floor of the 4,000-square-foot Coach store. The first day of the meeting passed an important resolution. Founded in the 1940s, the Coach brand came from a flat background. Later, it gradually became a status symbol for professional women. Since then, it has become a favorite of fashionistas. Coach has created an "affordable luxury" concept. Nowadays the precious luxury of old days has faded, and opportunities and desires have ceased to exist. Coach must adapt to trends to change.

Coach thus began a year-long unremitting efforts to design a series of new handbags and accessories, these products must not only meet the trend but also reduce Coach's brand value or damage its image. In order to accomplish this goal, the company's managers must not only find new sources for leather, fabrics, and gadgets, but also renegotiate supply contracts with suppliers and establish closer partnerships than ever before. "I have never worked so hard," Lu Frankfurt said. He has been with Coach since 1979 and has been CEO of the company since 1995. These efforts eventually converged into the new Poppy series, which was released at the end of June this year. The Poppy brand is more youthful, which in Frankfurt seems to mean freedom of choice and truth. The average price of this series of products is only 260 US dollars, 20% lower than the traditional Coach handbags.

Almost all fashion brands have found a unique strategy to deal with the crisis. J.Crew reduced the price of basic flat and casual shoes from $118 to $98. The average price of Vera Wang's wedding gown was 5,500 US dollars last year, and it will be adjusted to 3,800 U.S. dollars next spring. However, a problem that plagues Coach is that the Poppy brand may be seen as a short-term behavior of Coach in response to consumers' current shyness. Even worse, it may even be considered as a lack of consideration. Strategy. However, Frankfurt and his team firmly believe that the consumption habits and expectations formed during the depression will also be maintained after the recession is over. The era of a $330 handbag has ended. The company hopes that the Poppy brand can help the company adjust its business direction. In Frankfurt's view, this will be more conducive to the development of the company, and for Coach, this means that the average price of handbags will drop to 290 US dollars.

For Coach, this adjustment is a social experiment. It is a challenge faced by corporate managers and an inevitable move to improve the financial status quo. The company's turnover for the last fiscal year (as of June 2008) reached $3.18 billion, an increase of 22% compared to the 2007 fiscal year. Today, however, the handbag manufacturer has experienced a slowdown in sales growth since its public listing in 2000. At the same time as profits decline, profit margins continue to shrink. Coach learned experience from it, the company often investigates the customer's economic expectations and consumer tastes; careful demonstration of new design solutions; quantified almost all the details; in addition the company still holds enough funds. From this perspective, Coach should have the ability to respond to the current recession. However, once it comes to women, fashion, and money, the outcome is often unpredictable.

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Frankfurt, 63, is still energetic and meticulous in everything. An old building in Manhattan used to be Coach's factory, and now Frankfurt's bright and transparent office is located on the 12th floor of the building. There are well-placed Prynne plant pots; coffee and juice are at your fingertips; newspapers and magazines are organised. Frankfurt puts a table of data marked with neat rows on the wall behind it. The table lists daily and weekly sales reports for various products and stores, including 324 full-price stores and 109 discount stores in North America (Coach also has counters in many department stores). Each piece of data will be accurately analyzed to grasp the total number of people received in each store, the percentage of customers who purchase products in the total number, the products they purchase, and the amount they spend. At the same time, Frankfurt also pays close attention to the product placement plans of various stores around the world. Each Coach store will replace old products and place new products according to the plan (the products that are off the shelf will eventually be sold at discount stores). A few years ago, Coach discovered that those old customers visited around 30 days. Frankfurt thinks they should have new surprises every time they visit.

Coach spends $5 million annually on consumer research. Every three months, the company will conduct a survey of female consumers, inviting about 20,000 women each time to participate online, asking them about their views on the Coach brand, as well as their economic expectations and spending habits. It is based on these research data that Frankfurt, in an interview with the fashion industry publication “Women's Wear Daily” in January 2008, affirmed that the recession in consumption has come. "I thought at the time that this would be a serious and enduring recession," recalls Frankfurt. "For this reason, Coach needs to create more selling points that will inspire customers to buy."

Coach's employees are always talking about the "complex process" of the company, which is a set of strict and meticulous resolution processes. Coach does not like to act rashly, and any decision must be carefully considered. At first, Frankfurt once believed that Coach did not need to completely change the way the company operated, and could fully cope with the declining status of American consumers' economic power. Perhaps it would be sufficient for consumers to gain a brand-new feeling when they visit Coach stores.

However, by the spring of 2008, the financial sector began to collapse, the unemployment rate has risen, and cheap products have become the new darling of those fashion people. After reconsidering, Frankfurt and other top executives agreed that it is necessary to inject more “young spirit” into the Coach brand at this time. "We think this is exactly what the Coach brand lacks," said Frankfurt.

Today's consumers are full of anxiety and uncertainty. Do they have a desire to buy something interesting? Coach's research results indicate that “this idea is wrong. People don’t want to buy a safe,” said Coach’s 45-year-old executive idea. Director Reed Krakow said. The self-confident Krakow got a good deal from Coach (last year's income was $22.4 million). He said: "People are eager to get inspired. And this is the value of fashion, but also the meaning of shopping." Krakow called this new concept "Poppy" and use this as a name for the new series of products.