What did DAPHNE do to bring itself back from the dead?
Many females born in the 1980s and 1990s are familiar with DAPHNE. For many Chinese women, it was the first true fashionable shoe brand. When DAPHNE was founded in 1990, the Hong Kong style, American street style, French elegance, and other styles of DAPHNE products continuously refreshed Chinese women's perception of fashion, dressing stylishly and uniquely, becoming a new pursuit for young Chinese women.
When China’s double-digit growth rates began to temper in around 2015, DAPHNE, focusing on the women's shoe sector, was particularly impacted. Intensifying market competition led to product unsalability, followed by inventory pressures. In order to survive, With DAPHNE’s falling revenue, it contracted its operations over the years that followed. From 2019, Daphne aggressively closed most of its stores and actively sought transformation.
DAPHNE's strategy had been focused on "rapidly occupying offline retail channels." During the period of explosive growth from 2005 to 2012, the DAPHNE Group swept through every county, opening 300 new stores per month at its peak. However, the offline model faced issues such as long inventory turnover cycles and slow introduction of new products. Additionally, having too many stores in the same area led to internal competition, further exacerbating inventory oversupply issues. Moreover, extensive discounting to beat competition harmed its brand value.
And so the turnaround began
Under the deadlock, DAPHNE had to seek a new way out. In the first step of transformation, the DAPHNE Group departed from its previous strategy of rapid expansion and incubated a new "brand platform model" by targeting the "outdated business model".
At a brand level, DAPHNE focused on rejuvenation, targeting the new younger generation who high propensity to spend. As early as 2017, DAPHNE announced a simplified logo, leaving just a concise English word of "DAPHNE" in sans-serif for brand identification, which would be easier for young consumers to remember quickly and facilitate easier sharing on social media.
DAPHNE's logo before and after updated
As part of the brand refresh, DAPHNE upgraded stores and their designs. Newly opened flagship stores present a European and American light luxury style. The entire space is dominated by black, white, and gray tones, with gold lines to enhance texture. The design is simple, atmospheric, and full of youthful fashion sense.
In 2020, DAPHNE strengthened its cooperation with KOLs on social platforms such as Kuaishou, Douyin, and RED, while also increasing livestreaming to increase exposure among young people.
DAPHNE also increased its push at shopping festivals. During the 618 and Double-11 shopping festivals, they conducted livestreaming events at least a week in advance. During the Double-12 on Douyin, DAPHNE's top products' daily sales volume increased nearly 600 times compared to normal trading.
At a product level, DAPHNE Group is committed to disruptive innovation and originality. Its newly born sub-brand DAPHNE.LAB embraces original avant-garde design styles, covering young groups with a pursuit of avant-garde fashion and higher purchasing power, with originality as the driving force. In 2023, the brand's product, the 'sugar cube over-the-knee boots', became hugely popular, with many domestic female celebrities spontaneously advertising for the product. It even gained popularity in overseas markets and became a signature fashion item for Korean girl idol groups.
DAPHNE.LAB's products got popular on the internet. Image: RED/Xiaohongshu
In addition to style innovation, DAPHNE has also devoted considerable effort to creative retail space. On April 1st last year, the first global DAPHNE.LAB store officially opened in Shanghai TX Huaihai. The storefront of this avant-garde design brand presents an attitude to consumers just like the slogan "Dare to be", with bold and exaggerated neon pink graffiti, breaking the stereotype with a cyberpunk mechanical layout. It doesn’t just convey the female power that DAPHNE has adhered to for many years, but also elevates the visual level of traditional women's shoe stores. Even passersby can't help but stop and say, "Daphne has evolved like this?"
DAPHNE.LAB store at Shanghai TX Huaihai. Image: 36kr WeChat official account
Like many contemporary brands in China, collaboration events have been indispensable for DAPHNE. Its strategy has not been to seek big-name brands for collaborations, but to ensure that the attitude is right. For example, they collaborated with the artist Du Qiurui to launch a humorous series in May last year. Their co-branding with designer brand Marrknull appeared at the London Fashion Week in 2023; and on International Women's Day, they invited three female KOLs to share their stories of "daring" to increase the volume of the new series.
DAPHNE co-branding with unique designers and launched cooperative products. Image: RED/Xiaohongshu
The initiatives has seen strong uplift in DAPHNE’s revenue, which grew 53% to ¥263 million ($36m) last year. Its Taobao official flagship store has attracted 972k followers, its official Douyin account has 2.08 million followers, and other Douyin accounts also have a large following.
