Juicy Couture希望借中国东山再起

    时尚品牌Juicy Couture曾经因为天它的天鹅绒材质运动服备受知名人士喜爱而名噪一时。然而，这个品牌最近表示，将于今年夏季关闭美国境内的所有店铺，在此期间重塑品牌形象。

    Juicy Couture在重新规划自己在美国本土业务的同时，将目光牢牢对准了时尚行业的新乐土：中国。

    本周二，Juicy Couture母公司Authentic Brands Group宣布，已经与中国品牌管理公司俊思集团（ImagineX Group）签订了长期合作协议。Authentic Brands Group最先于2006年买下了Juicy Couture在大中华区和东南亚地区管理经销权。它目前的想法是，通过增设40家门店以及扩充产品系列，进一步扩大Juicy Couture品牌在中国的发展。

    Authentic Brands Group和俊思集团签订的新协议最短期限为十年，在协议期终止后，可再续签两个十年期的协议。除Juicy Couture外，俊思集团还在与Salvatore Ferragamo和Marc Jacobs品牌合作。目前，俊思集团将尝试在大型商场之外开设Juicy Couture门店，并将于明年新上线由Steve Madden公司制作的一个鞋履系列。最后，俊思集团计划在未来几年之内，在传统商业区以外，开设独立的Juicy Couture门店。（在中国，许多欧美品牌都是从百货商场的店面发展起来的。）

    Juicy在美国得到了大量的惨痛教训，在中国区的发展过程中，Juicy需要引以为戒，以避免像在美国一样，因决策失误而导致品牌迅速丧失时尚度。【Juicy将在今年秋季回归美国，在科尔士百货公司（Kohl's）销售。而品牌早期是在Nordstrom和Bloomingdale这类奢侈品百货商场销售的——可见已经今非昔比。】

    Authentic Brands公司从Kate Spade公司（前身为Fifth & Pacific Cos，再之前为Liz Claiborne）手中以1.95亿美元的价格买下了奄奄一息的Juicy Couture。这家公司认为，这个品牌仍有希望起死回生。在势头急转而下之前，Juicy Couture曾在2008年的巅峰期创下了年销售额6.05亿美元的佳绩（主要为美国本土销售）。

    然而，公司开设连锁店的速度过快，尤其是门店——本以为这会带来极大成功，结果却一败涂地。随着各大店铺的开张，Juicy很快变得满大街都是，再加上商标俗艳不堪，消费者逐渐丧失了兴趣。

    Juicy计划于2015年初回归美国市场开设店铺，并在未来5年内，在纽约、洛杉矶等大型城市，以及温哥华等海外中心城市共开设127家店铺。因此，中国区的扩张情况将对它下一步的计划具有启发性意义。（财富中文网）

    译者：朱毓芬/汪皓

    Juicy Couture, the once-hot brand known for its velour track suits favored by celebrities, recently said it would close all of its U.S. stores this summer while it goes off to re-invent itself.

    But while it rethinks its U.S. business, it has its eyes fully trained on fashion’s new promised land: China.

    Authentic Brands Group, Juicy Couture’s owner, on Tuesday announced a long-term partnership with ImagineX Group, a China-based brand management company, that first bought the management and distribution rights of Juicy Couture for Greater China and South East Asia in 2006. The idea is to deepen the brand’s reach into China by getting it into another 40 locations and expanding the brand’s assortment.

    The two parties’ new arrangement will have a minimum term of 10 years with an option to extend it for two more 10-year terms. ImagineX, which works also works with brands like Salvatore Ferragamo, and Marc Jacobs, will now try to bring the brand to locations beyond shopping malls. It will also add a new Juicy footwear collection produced by Steve Madden next year. Finally, it plans to open Juicy Couture freestanding stores in the coming years. (Many Western brands start off in China with sections inside department stores.)

    As it builds out in China, Juicy will have plenty of painful U.S. lessons it can draw from to avoid making the mistakes that drained its fashion cred stateside. (Juicy will return to U.S. stores this fall when it is sold in Kohl’s , a far cry from the luxury department stores such as Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s it used to be available in its early years.)

    Authentic Brands bought the struggling brand from the company now known as Kate Spade (and before that Fifth & Pacific Cos, and before that Liz Claiborne) for $195 million, reasoning that there was life yet left in Juicy Couture, a brand that at its peak in 2008 had annual sales of $605 million (primarily U.S. sales.) before going into free-fall.

    But the brand built out its own chain of stores too quickly, including the kiss of death, outlets, and flamed out, with customers turned off by its ubiquity, its use of garish logos.

    How the China expansion goes will be instructive for Juicy. It is planning to return to the U.S. with its stores that would be part of a fleet of 127 stores it will build globally in the next 5 years in major cities like New York City and Los Angeles and abroad in centers like Vancouver by early 2015.