Li Ning - the second echelon

Chasing Nike in the gap, Adidas

Nike, Adidas because of the financial strength, often can sign up for sports stars to enhance their own brand image. First look at Nike's spokesperson's lineup, Kobe, James, Anthony, Parker in the basketball field, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, Drogba in the football field, Nadal in the tennis world, Sharapova, etc. These spokespersons cover almost everything. The top-level superstars in various fields. Adi's football series spokesperson Kaka, Raul, Zidane, Messi and so on.

In fact, Li Ning began to imitate Nike and Adi from the very beginning of business and chose the celebrity spokesperson. However, due to limited funds and strength, only stars of the next level can be signed. Such as O'Neal, Turner, Jones.

Although O'Neal was very well-known earlier, he was close to retirement age and did not contribute much to Li Ning. Turner and Jones are known to be too small, which makes it difficult for Li Ning to gain popularity internationally. Sports fans are also hard to pursue.

“But the endorsement of the endorsement is only one aspect. On the other hand, the internationalization of channels, the internationalization of institutions, the internationalization of talents, and the internationalization of products require several points that complement each other. Now Peak has signed many stars, but it can Is it an international brand?"

For product development, compared with Nike, Adidas, etc., Li Ning is good at finding new ideas from the Chinese elements, always staying at the forefront of innovation, such as the game clothing with Chinese dragons, “Chibi” cultural shoes, and “Zhong Kai”. Basketball shoes, "cloud" basketball shoes, Lei Feng shoes and so on are all derived from the elements of China and even Eastern culture. Therefore, Li Ning did not show weaknesses to Adi and Nike, but actively and actively obtained creative elements from the local culture.

“Lei Feng 001 is my favorite Li Ning product. At the end, after a few revisions, it finally became a service for the people 001. The designer Lao Zuo is also my very good friend. This product is not only an oriental element, but also reflects creativity and attracts me. It is this kind of creativity. What I want to say is that mentioning the elements of the East should not only be thought of something like Chinese painting, Chinese ink, and tripod. Everything around us is Chinese and Oriental,” Andy said.

However, the lack of continuity of Li Ning products is a big mistake. For example, before Li Ning pushed the 001 series, there weren't many people concerned. The same thing happened to Li Ning several times. Each main push product was mainly for one or two years. Then there was a change of product line. There was no continuity, only point, no face.

“Instead, the shells of Adi and the AF1 of Nike are all accumulated for many years. The connotation of the product is much deeper and the accumulation of the brand is accumulating in the accumulation of one product after another,” said Andy.

On the international front, Adi is first of all a talent advantage, a technical advantage, a channel advantage, and a brand advantage. Li Ning can be said that Adi was not at the starting line from the very beginning. However, Li Ning is still doing a good job, but Li Ning is slightly quick success.

“Li Ning’s current failure is the failure of product positioning. Li Ning wants to attack first-line brands, but also to win the young market, so they changed the connotation of many brands, resulting in the loss of some of the original customer groups, and their brand awareness in consumers. There is a gap in the position that Li Ning and Zhonghe brand want to reach, which causes new target customers to not buy it,” Andy said.

From the perspective of brand positioning, Nike and Adi have focused on sports since their inception. It has firmly grasped sports, an area that people are paying more and more attention to, and focused on providing sports equipment to people who love sports.

“Each of their shoes and clothes is researched, tested, improved, and finally put into the market,” said one sportsman who declined to be named.

However, today's Nike and Adi are gaining momentum. They have already sacrificed their efforts to encircle local brands: first to enter third- and fourth-tier cities; second, to cut prices; and third, to grab the channel market. "Actually, Nike and Adi attach great importance to Li Ning as a competitor. Every week, they look at Li Ning's sales, because after all, Li Ning has sales of more than 8 billion yuan a year. There is no basis for this." According to people in the sports industry.

Being pressed hard by "Jinjiang Gang"

The "Li Ning" brand was founded because of Li Ning's ideal. His ideal is to be a great sports brand in China. Moreover, Li Ning integrated this sports spirit into Li Ning's corporate culture so that every employee can understand the sports spirit.

Li Ning also knew that he needed a professional person to help himself take care of the company. He started to train successors early on, so Li Ning was the first entrepreneur to establish a professional person management team.

The companies like Anta and Peak are generally referred to in the industry as "Jinjiang Gang" because they are mostly originated in Jinjiang. These companies are mostly foundry-based companies, are in the low end of the industrial chain, and other capital strength, they began to apply for a brand, and then find a bunch of stars, advertising in CCTV, the development of agents, and gradually grow up. This is a form of pure business. Their characteristics are what they do when they make money, and family business problems are even more serious.

Andy is not optimistic that Jinjiang companies are just looking for short-term effects. "They have a common problem with many Chinese companies, that is, quick success, blindly spending money for the endorsement of the star, and then introduce a number of fuzzy technology concepts, Chinese companies still need to step-by-step accumulation." Andy said.

“The current franchise management mode of Jinjiang enterprises sometimes makes me feel that I have returned to the small-scale farming economy, the clan, the village, and so on. As for the company's affiliate model, it is not ruled out as a development direction, but now it seems a bit like passing risk.” According to a sports industry official who declined to be named, “The DNA of Li Ning is different from that of Jinjiang. No matter whether it is a founder or a company, the blood is still flowing in the blood. You don’t see any of the world’s brands, Adidas and Nike, selling their products. All the dog meat has a deep understanding of the sport."

But now, Jinjiang has helped enterprises to rise to the fore and have caused a siege to Li Ning. In 2010, Li Ning’s profits were exceeded by Anta, and Anta also used the Chinese CBA to gain fame overseas.

Li Ning always believes that he is a sports brand company with great ideals. They are despising Jinjiang shoe companies that only sell shoes. However, in recent years, they have seen the performance of these young compatriots who have been their own younger brothers grow rapidly and even exceed the performance. In my own time, my heart is always sour. The frustration is that their own management team is not reconciled.

"The most appropriate thing is that we want consumers to find a synonym. For example, basketball and NBA are Nike, football and European major leagues are Adi. And Li Ning wants to find his synonym." Said the insider who declined to be named.

How to look for a synonym is to return to the sport itself and return to the domestic market. Marketing should continue to highlight Li Ning's advantageous projects such as: small balls, gymnastics, and running.

In short, what can be said about Li Ning is LINING rather than Li Ning. As for channels, goods, marketing, operations, etc., all are interlocking.

“Li Ning is actually much easier to upgrade than Anta and other Jinjiang departments, but in 2006 Li Ning began to expand itself, leaving many people within the company out of the market. Now it is time for Li Ning to return.” said the industry insider who declined to be named. Said.