Cashmere group builds China label

The new brand Gulass will be officially launched next month on the mainland with a Grey Global Group-developed campaign that covers packaging, corporate identity and communications. The line's entry point will be cashmere pants.

This segment boasts fewer competitors in China because the products are costlier to produce since the materials need to be chemically treated to make it stretchable. Maoren chief executive You Lin said: "At the moment, the market is dominated by tops. So we will go in with pants but also offer coordinated tops as well."

The entreprenuer said he handed product development as well as marketing communications to a multinational agency because he placed great importance on branding. "In China, there are a lot of good factories, but few good brands," You said.

He added that Maoren would pay great attention to detail in the making of the product and had hired European designers to design its line to ensure it is at the forefront of world fashion trends.

Retailing for between Rmb 600 (US$72) and Rmb 2,000, the pants are targeted at upscale consumers, aged between 28 and 40. Gulass is focusing initial marketing efforts on trade targets before it turns its attention to the the mass market. An integrated campaign, featuring Hong Kong actress, Carina Lau, is planned for its mass market rollout.

Grey Hong Kong and China chairperson, Viveca Chan, said: "The emotional positioning is on the individual and romance. It's about being fashionable and stylish and enjoying it, which links with the product attributes: soft, gentle, light and warm."

This is not the first time that You has developed new brands in China - the company is known in the country as the producer of fashionable underwear under the Maoren label and a no-frills line called Zoka. You said that his ultimate ambition was to become the "global cashmere expert". "We have tried to get the best people in and our operational standards are high," he said.