時尚品牌Juicy Couture希望借中國東山再起

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.

時尚品牌Juicy Couture曾經因爲天它的天鵝絨材質運動服備受知名人士喜愛而名噪一時。然而，這個品牌最近表示，將於今年夏季關閉美國境內的所有店鋪，在此期間重塑品牌形象。

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

Juicy Couture在重新規劃自己在美國本土業務的同時，將目光牢牢對準了時尚行業的新樂土：中國。

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.

本週二，Juicy Couture母公司Authentic Brands Group宣佈，已經與中國品牌管理公司俊思集團（ImagineX Group）簽訂了長期合作協議。Authentic Brands Group最先於2006年買下了Juicy Couture在大中華區和東南亞地區管理經銷權。它目前的想法是，通過增設40家門店以及擴充產品系列，進一步擴大Juicy Couture品牌在中國的發展。

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.)

Authentic Brands Group和俊思集團簽訂的新協議最短期限爲十年，在協議期終止後，可再續簽兩個十年期的協議。除Juicy Couture外，俊思集團還在與Salvatore Ferragamo和Marc Jacobs品牌合作。目前，俊思集團將嘗試在大型商場之外開設Juicy Couture門店，並將於明年新上線由Steve Madden公司製作的一個鞋履系列。最後，俊思集團計劃在未來幾年之內，在傳統商業區以外，開設獨立的Juicy Couture門店。（在中國，許多歐美品牌都是從百貨商場的店面發展起來的。）

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.)

Juicy在美國得到了大量的慘痛教訓，在中國區的發展過程中，Juicy需要引以爲戒，以避免像在美國一樣，因決策失誤而導致品牌迅速喪失時尚度。【Juicy將在今年秋季迴歸美國，在科爾士百貨公司（Kohl's）銷售。而品牌早期是在Nordstrom和Bloomingdale這類奢侈品百貨商場銷售的——可見已經今非昔比。】

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.

Authentic Brands公司從Kate Spade公司（前身爲Fifth & Pacific Cos，再之前爲Liz Claiborne）手中以1.95億美元的價格買下了奄奄一息的Juicy Couture。這家公司認爲，這個品牌仍有希望起死回生。在勢頭急轉而下之前，Juicy Couture曾在2008年的巔峯期創下了年銷售額6.05億美元的佳績（主要爲美國本土銷售）。

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.

然而，公司開設連鎖店的速度過快，尤其是門店——本以爲這會帶來極大成功，結果卻一敗塗地。隨着各大店鋪的開張，Juicy很快變得滿大街都是，再加上商標俗豔不堪，消費者逐漸喪失了興趣。

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.

Juicy計劃於2015年初回歸美國市場開設店鋪，並在未來5年內，在紐約、洛杉磯等大型城市，以及溫哥華等海外中心城市共開設127家店鋪。因此，中國區的擴張情況將對它下一步的計劃具有啓發性意義。