Recently, a topic about "earning tens of thousands a month but still reluctant to buy Ordos" has surged to the top of the trending list, with the high topic heat keeping the old national brand Ordos in the public eye once again.

How expensive must the clothes be for consumers earning tens of thousands a month to hesitate to purchase?

Upon opening shopping software, one finds that a cashmere sweater from Ordos costs three to four thousand yuan, and a cashmere coat can cost ten to twenty thousand yuan.

For a while, the question of why Ordos is so expensive has become the focus of discussion among netizens.

Many attentive netizens have noticed that Ordos's designs have also changed from the old-fashioned style to a more fashionable one.

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Stars such as Liu Wen, Yuan Quan, and Zhang Tian'ai have all worn the brand, showcasing simple and elegant outfits that exude a sense of "quiet luxury" in fashion.

It is unclear when this cashmere brand, once highly favored by grandmothers, has become aligned with international fashion powerhouses.

What has happened to the explosively popular Ordos over the years?

Ordos was once just an obscure small factory, but the region it is located in possesses the world's highest quality and most abundant cashmere resources.In 1979, the Yimeng Cashmere Sweater Factory was established, and by introducing advanced foreign production equipment and technology, within just a few years, the factory was producing nearly 20% of the world's cashmere.

In 1984, during a trip abroad for inspection, the factory director, Wang Linxiang, noticed that many of the cashmere sweaters in the stores were from his own factory, but they had an additional brand label.

However, the price of the cashmere sweaters with the brand label was dozens of times higher than their export price.

The significant price difference shocked Wang Linxiang and inspired him to create his own brand.

Thus, a brand named "Ordos" entered the consumer market, opening a new chapter in China's cashmere industry.

As more and more cashmere enterprises emerged, cashmere raw materials became a lucrative target in the market.

Many people, attracted by the potential for huge profits, began to adulterate the raw materials with sand and rocks, passing off inferior products as high quality.

With the changing supply and demand dynamics, the price of raw cashmere soared, reaching a peak six times higher than before, causing chaos in the market.

As the rush for raw cashmere intensified, the market began to see price wars, which forced the quality of raw cashmere to decline significantly once again.

This tarnished the international reputation of Chinese cashmere, leading to a boycott by foreign merchants, an event known historically as the "Cashmere War".The market plunged into a trough, and national enterprises faced an unprecedented crisis. The savior of this crisis was none other than Erdos.

With the support of relevant departments in Inner Mongolia, Erdos established the Inner Mongolia KVSS Cashmere Enterprise Group, which covers six provinces including Inner Mongolia, Hebei, and Ningxia.

The group formulates policies to lead raw material production, and members operate independently under the guidance of the group, supervising each other.

After five years, under the leadership of Erdos, the chaotic market situation was gradually reversed, and the interests of China's cashmere industry were defended.

Subsequently, the brand name of Erdos became renowned both domestically and internationally.

In 1989, Erdos made its debut on CCTV with the advertisement "Erdos, warming the whole world," which spread to thousands of households.

Since then, Erdos has become synonymous with the cashmere category, and its distribution stores have expanded from Inner Mongolia to all parts of the country.

In 2001, the Yikezhao League was abolished, and a prefecture-level city named "Erdos" was established.

From then on, Erdos is not only a company, a brand, but also a region, a city.

For the Erdos Group, this is an honor granted by the country, and more importantly, a heavy responsibility.Erdosi started from a high point, entering the market during a blank period, and became the hegemon of the cashmere industry after its debut. However, in fact, many people are not clear about the difference between "cashmere" and "wool," and even many people think that only older people will wear Erdosi. This deeply rooted idea is directly related to the layout of the stores. Erdosi's stores are often located in department stores, on the same floor as elderly clothing brands, and the design style also belongs to the aesthetic of the middle-aged and elderly. In memory, those who often wear Erdosi are mostly elders who are well-mixed in the family. However, as the younger generation gradually becomes the main force of consumption, Erdosi also began to show fatigue in sales. After all, for young people who are at the forefront of fashion, Erdosi, which is both expensive and warm, is almost useless. From 2011 to 2014, the revenue of Erdosi cashmere and cashmere products began to decline year by year, with a revenue decline of 526 million yuan in three years, a drop of nearly 20%. In 2015, Erdosi's second-generation leader, Wang Zhen, officially took over the group's business from her father, Wang Linxiang. Wang Linxiang did not hand over the company to his daughter at the peak of the group. This time, the handover was more like a critical mission. How to sell the "mother brand" to the huge younger generation has become an important issue faced by Wang Zhen after taking office. At first, Erdosi tried to design the clothing style more youthfully and moved the department store stores into shopping centers, next to domestic and foreign first and second-line brands. However, the adjustment of design and stores is only a temporary solution, and Erdosi not only failed to achieve the expected goal, but also made the older generation of consumers feel questioned.It is difficult to convey two things in a single sentence, and it is equally challenging for a single brand to be accepted by different customer groups. In order to win more customers, Erdos ultimately chose to split its existing brand.

On September 1, 2016, Erdos officially announced the division of the main brand "Erdos ERDOS" into two independent brands, namely "Erdos 1980" and "ERDOS". The positioning of the two brands is entirely different; the former focuses on the inheritance of quality, highlighting classic, professional, and comfortable products; the latter emphasizes fashion, targeting the middle class with certain quality standards.

In addition, Erdos also has two other product lines: the high-end cashmere line "1436" and "BLUE ERDOS", which is positioned as young and individualistic, aiming at the young customer base of the 90s and 00s generations. The following year, Erdos added the children's wear brand "erdos KIDS", covering customers of all age groups and achieving the finalization of the brand family.

After the brand split, the performance of Erdos's cashmere clothing segment significantly improved. The first year's revenue increased to 2.472 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8%, and the second year's revenue reached 2.827 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.17%.

In 2018, the co-branded series with brand spokesperson Liu Wen was officially launched. Erdos perfectly combined cashmere with fashion, with simple and stylish designs that exude an international blockbuster vibe. However, this was not the first collaboration between Erdos and Liu Wen; they have been working together for ten years.

At the same time, the brand upgrade of Erdos began to be planned 10 years ago.In 2008, Erdos hired the French fashion designer Gilles Dufour as the artistic director of the brand. Gilles Dufour, with over two decades of experience, had worked for top international brands such as Chanel and Fendi.

Under his recommendation, Erdos engaged Liu Wen, who was not well-known at the time. Since then, Erdos and Liu Wen have achieved mutual success and have come this far together.

After a decade of honing, Erdos finally shed the labels of "middle-aged and elderly" and "mom brand," joining the ranks of fashion.

However, just as Erdos wanted to stride forward, the sudden emergence of masks interrupted its pace.

In recent years, the revenue of Erdos's clothing segment has been on a downward trend.

In 2020, the segment's revenue fell to 2.953 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.6%; in 2021, there was a slight rebound, with revenue reaching 3.584 billion yuan, but it quickly fell back to 3.331 billion yuan the following year.

Looking at the proportion of total revenue, in 2022, Erdos's clothing segment's share of revenue dropped from 15% in 2019 to less than 10%.

After three years of special periods, consumers have become more rational in their spending, even experiencing varying degrees of consumption downgrading.

The phrase "earning tens of thousands a month but still reluctant to buy Erdos" mentioned by netizens is not because the monthly salary of tens of thousands is not high enough, nor is it because Erdos is too expensive to bear. Instead, under the guidance of rational consumption, people pay more attention to the cost-effectiveness of products.

Do we really need cashmere clothing that costs thousands or tens of thousands?If one really intends to make a purchase, how should they go about it? Consumers will conduct more considerations before buying.

Looking at the sales data from e-commerce platforms, the brand Erdos 1980 has a significant lead in sales. Erdos 1980 belongs to the traditional classic style, and its prices are not exorbitant, with the unit price of cashmere sweaters ranging from 1000 to 1500 yuan.

Furthermore, in the comment sections, one can observe consumers complaining about the poor quality of cashmere due to pilling of the fabric, as well as dissatisfaction with the price drop of their cashmere sweaters shortly after purchase.

They have spent thousands of yuan on a cashmere sweater, only for it to pill after wearing it for a few days.

Faced with various quality issues, many consumers feel that the quality does not match the high price they paid, and it is not worth the expense.

However, in reality, pilling is an issue that can occur with any cashmere product, even with the finest quality cashmere.

For consumers purchasing cashmere sweaters, they can only focus on care and washing frequency, and it is impossible to completely avoid this problem.

Although Erdos has a history of over 40 years, and cashmere products are well-known to consumers, there is still a lack of understanding regarding cashmere.

Consumers need more time to understand where the high cost of cashmere sweaters comes from and what they should be truly worth.

Additionally, there is an issue with the confusion of sub-brand products under the Erdos brand.For instance, both Ordos 1980 and ERDOS offer cashmere scarves, and the differences between these scarves and how to choose among them can be confusing for some consumers.

If the situation of product confusion continues to develop over the long term, inventory will only accumulate more and more, thereby affecting the company's development.

The brand transformation of Ordos has been completed, but there is still much to do around the transformation. At the same time, the market also needs a certain amount of time to digest, allowing consumers to have a better understanding of Ordos and cashmere.

Today, Ordos is no longer the old brand of mothers and grandmothers; it is becoming increasingly fashionable.

Sales outlets have moved from department stores to shopping centers, and even to luxury shopping malls like Beijing SKP and Wangfujing.

More and more big-name celebrities such as Liu Wen, Hu Ge, and Li Yuchun are endorsing it, along with a diversified brand and the inherently high prices of cashmere products.

It has to be said that these factors make Ordos's high-end positioning clear at a glance. However, for the general consumer, there is still a certain distance between Ordos's brand image and price.

The value of brand transformation is unquestionable, but to truly achieve a strategy that covers the main consumer groups, Ordos still has a long way to go.

In this era of the rise of national brands, more and more consumers favor purchasing domestic products.

Regarding cashmere resources, Ordos has a unique advantage, and it is anticipated that in the near future, Ordos will not only warm the world but also lead more young Chinese consumers, making the cashmere national brand worth owning.Please provide the text you would like translated into English.