Pang Wei: Enlightenment from the tens of dollars of canvas shoes and thousands of dollars of wigs

The tens of dollars of canvas shoes is one of the best-selling products on Vanke Eslite. A few thousand dollars of wigs are the main products in the Rebecca store.

Although the price difference is tens or even 100 times, the sales of the above two companies have achieved tremendous growth last year: the industry expects that Eslite will have sales of more than 3 billion last year, nearly double the increase, while Rebecca sold domestic products last year . The amount has increased by 74%.

Both companies are said to have grown rapidly. In 2008, the sales of Eslite Eslite was only 100 million, and Rebecca, which had been focusing on export sales, began to expand its domestic market in the past two years. Their success will undoubtedly give great encouragement to many companies that are trying to nurture the domestic consumer market. Behind their success, it may reflect the changes in the structure of China's consumer market.

Five or six years ago, the author interviewed Rebecca executives. The company's explanation is why the price of the product is high and the domestic consumer acceptance is low. Today, it is clear that the market has the ability to accept such expensive fashion items. However, this is only one side of the story. The other side is a T-shirt of twenty or thirty yuan, and a pair of canvas shoes of fifty or sixty yuan on the Vanke Eslite website.

Is China entering the M-type society? The "M-type society" is a concept put forward by the Japanese management master Daisaku Kenichi. Through the study of Japan's economic society, he pointed out that the polarization of income polarization and the imbalance of social development have intensified, causing Japan's middle class to gradually disappear and collapse. The population distribution has become two large and middle-income groups with low-income and high-income groups. According to the research of Daisuke Kenichi, 80% of Japanese are in the middle and low income layer.

Is the social structure of the M-type a development trend of the traditional spine-shaped social structure dominated by the middle class? It seems very likely now that after the financial crisis in recent years, many countries in Europe and the United States are facing similar situations, and this change has already been felt by Chinese exporters. Rebecca wrote in the annual report last year: "After the financial crisis in 2008, the European and American markets formed a trend of polarization, the demand in the mid-end market shrank sharply, and the demand in the high-end market continued to increase." The continued fermenting of the US debt crisis, this trend of polarization is more obvious."

Whether China is moving towards an M-type society or is already in the M-type social structure is still difficult to determine. However, tens of dollars of canvas shoes and thousands of dollars of wigs are also hot, which is the characteristics of M-type social consumption polarization. This can give the company a lot of inspiration. In the M-type social business strategy of Daisuke Kenichi, companies should go low-end, provide cheap and affordable products, and win by quantity; or take high-end, cater to the pursuit of taste by high-income class, profitable, and locate the middle-end goods. The risk is greater.