Anta'S Olympic Road

Back in 20 years, Ding Zhizhong was still a teenager who went to the capital to sell shoes to Jinjiang.

Today, he is a young generation boss with an annual sales volume of over 1 billion yuan, and is the president of Anta group.

He worked hard for 4 years to save 200 thousand yuan. He spent 20 yuan in the summer Olympic Games in Athens, which cost 20 million yuan.

Faced with the smoke of the Chinese sports shoes market, Anta under his leadership has always been in the lead.

Now, many people have begun to compare Anta with international brands, but Ding Zhizhong said Anta would not be China's Nike, but to be China's Anta and Anta of the world.

Recently, reporters contacted Anta's deputy general Ding Zhizhong. He said that some of the top Anta executives were in Shanghai recently, and now Ding Zhizhong is less frequently in Jinjiang and often in Shanghai.

Single to Beijing

In the late 80s of the last century, the footwear industry in Jinjiang was just emerging.

At that time, there were 3 million people in Jinjiang, of whom 2 million were overseas expatriates.

Some people have introduced Nike's sneakers into Jinjiang, and the family workshop shoe factories are getting more and more.

Under this background, Ding Zhizhong's father set up a shoe factory with a partnership.

In the summer of junior high school, Ding Zhizhong, 17, proposed to develop in Beijing.

His father told him why.

Ding Zhizhong said, every day, foreigners get money to buy things, almost everything can be sold. Why don't we take the initiative to sell the goods in Jinjiang.

Ding Fu's shoe factory at that time was also just started, the economy is not well-off, but was persuaded by his son, took out more than 10 thousand yuan, let Ding Zhizhong buy 600 pairs of Jinjiang shoes.

With 48 yuan to buy a train ticket from Fuzhou to Beijing, Ding Zhizhong took these 600 pairs of shoes and began to walk alone in Beijing.

In order to put the goods of Jinjiang in the counter of Xidan shopping malls in Beijing, Ding Zhizhong went to the mall every day. At first, the others disagreed, and he said to him, "how old are you, and you run out to do business?"

Ding Zhizhong insisted that he was 20 years old and no one believed it.

He also doesn't care about the complexion of others. He especially introduces the advantages of Jinjiang's products. He has been there for more than a month, and the people in the mall have promised to go to Jinjiang.

Ding Zhizhong was so happy that he hurried back to Jinjiang to prepare.

In his spare time, Ding Zhizhong ran to the shoe counters at various shopping malls in Beijing, observed the style and performance of some famous brand shoes, ran to the streets and noticed the pedestrians' feet.

In this way, Ding Zhizhong relies on his legs, sweet and sincere, so that all the shopping malls in Beijing put on Jinjiang shoes, including the most authoritative and the most difficult sales channel - Beijing Wangfujing shopping center.

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In the 4 years of Beijing, Ding Zhizhong earned 200 thousand, but through the observation of the market, the low price sales of Jinjiang shoes in Beijing also deeply stimulated him.

Ding Zhizhong believes that the quality of Jinjiang goods is no problem, but others shoes can sell 10 thousand yuan a day, Jinjiang shoes can only sell 3000 yuan, the main reason is that Jinjiang shoes have no brand.

Ding Zhizhong decided that he wanted to create a brand himself.

With the money he earned, Ding Zhizhong returned to Jinjiang and founded Anta.

At that time, shoemaking enterprises in Jinjiang were basically processing foreign brands, and overseas orders were considerable.

But Ding Zhizhong urged himself to enter the domestic market and put forward his own responsibility for sales to ensure that he could get enough orders. His family members agreed that he would be deputy general manager.

In 1992, Anta already had a certain scale.

A businessman in Shanxi saw Anta sell well in Beijing and took the initiative to find Ding Zhizhong as the general agent in Shanxi.

Ding Zhizhong told him to take 50 boxes of goods first, but after three days, he sold out his shoes.

In fact, before that, Ding Zhizhong was considering the franchise mode.

He believes that Anta shoes can be successful in Beijing and will succeed in other cities.

After some investigation, he suggested that the agent in Shanxi should invest 3 million in a year, sell 100 thousand pairs of Anta shoes, the agent agreed, and sold 600 thousand pairs of Anta sneakers in Shanxi a year later.

In this way, Ding Zhizhong began to work hard to expand the distribution channels of the domestic market. By the end of 1998, Anta had set up nearly 2000 franchise points in various large and medium-sized cities throughout the country.

Chopped millions

Zhang Ruimin, chief executive of Haier group, once used a big hammer to crush all defective Haier refrigerators.

And Ding Zhizhong once did a similar thing. He put 1 million of his shoes in the crusher and twisted them into pieces.

In October 1998, Anta received a complaint from a consumer in Beijing that he had only worn a pair of Anta for three days and broke a part of the toe piece.

Ding Zhizhong immediately instructed to compensate immediately and find out the reason.

The test results showed that there was a quality problem in the soles of the shoes.

Ding Zhizhong thought about it for a night and made a painful decision to recall all 10 thousand pairs of shoes that had been sent to eight parts of the country.

Then he concentrated all the staff of the company to the office building, and the 10 thousand pairs of shoes were also stacked on the floor.

He said to everyone: these shoes are worth 1 million, but they must bear the responsibility if they have quality problems.

No matter how much it costs.

Ding Zhizhong took the lead and picked up a pair of shoes and put them into the shredding machine.

Some employees shed tears on the spot, because many people thought that as long as the rework is OK.

But he believes that once the responsibility wall in the heart is broken, it is not so easy to repair.

"If loss is 100, omnipotence is a double responsibility. It is worth it."

Ding Zhizhong said.

Marketing war

In 1999, a war of advertising and sports star wars were born in the domestic shoe industry. Ding Zhizhong became the first person to eat crabs.

In those days, Ding Zhizhong made a very big decision that surprised Chen Dai Zhen: Anta signed an agreement with the national table tennis team to hire the then world champion Kong Linghui, who was the most popular table tennis player, as the spokesman of Anta.

After signing Kong Linghui, Ding Zhizhong decided to advertise on CCTV.

It turned out to be a dissenter.

In the first half of the year, Anta's profit was about 6000000, when the advertising budget reached 5 million, and shareholders thought it was too expensive.

However, Ding Zhizhong's attitude was very firm. He thought that the contract was not publicized. Others still did not know Anta, and 800 thousand really threw it away.

He told us that if he misjudged, shareholders would not pay dividends.

Two months before the advertising campaign, the market did not respond, and Ding Zhizhong's decision was questioned.

But from the third month, retailers began a long line in front of the factory gate.

"Kong Linghui + C TV" made Anta quickly gain a high reputation, and sales of more than 2000 franchise points rose.

The successful mode of Anta's brand was quickly imitated by the shoemakers in chedai town. After six months, the 5 sets of the Central Committee almost became "Chen Dai sports shoes channel".

But the lack of follow-up is that the initial advertising effect is not obvious without a ready distribution network.

Ding Zhizhong said: "Anta has just done the right thing at the right time, and has won the market opportunity."

Brand building

Ding Zhizhong believes that sports shoes are only a single field. Anta should be positioned as a genuine sporting goods brand.

In 2001, "Anta" was pformed from the production of single sports shoes to the production of sporting goods, and the product structure was extended to sports shoes, sportswear, hat socks, bags and so on. At the same time, Anta's store mode, sporting goods store, was rebuilt.

This is a new stage in the development of Anta.

In the same year, the establishment of Beijing Anta Oriental sporting goods company undertook the task of exclusive promotion.

Anta has set a plan to open 500 stores throughout the country in one year.

Fortunately, the launch of the monopoly mode has been supported by a large number of Anta dealers, especially those dealers who have already made money. They are willing to take out the accumulated funds to open their own stores.

By the end of 2001, 500 stores had springing up everywhere in large and medium-sized cities.

Among them, the self operated stores run by the original distributors account for more than half.

Beginning in 2003, "Anta" embarked on the road of professional sports brand building -- combining with professional sports to create brand.

With the input of middle school students and college basketball matches, especially to CBA, Anta's professional image is becoming clearer and its brand connotation has also been improved.

Ding Zhizhong said that Anta is to publicize individuality and advocate self expression through sports, so the core of Anta's brand culture is the spirit of modern sports.

Anta and Nike did not go the same way. Nike pursued sports, and appeared in some sports categories and sports events, and Anta appeared more often in the form of sport and leisure.

Anta does not want to be China's Nike, but to be China's Anta and Anta of the world.

It is by setting up a distinct personality to become the "Anta that China and the world enjoy."

Seeking listing

"There is only one way for the enterprise to face, only innovation, not keeping the business."

Although Ding Zhizhong spoke carelessly, his trajectory was a wonderful interpretation of this sentence.

When shoemaking companies were busy making money in factories, Ding Zhizhong made clear that "Anta" should take the road of brand. When a batch of shoe factories were copying Anta's sports star + CCTV advertising mode, Anta had already walked on the way of professional sports brand building; when its enterprises were trying to figure out the sales network and channel expansion of learning Anta, Ding Zhizhong had already prepared for the pformation of "Anta" from family businesses to public enterprises -- listing.

Ding Zhizhong is proud of Anta's listing. He often refers to entrepreneurs' sense of responsibility and mission.

Ding Zhizhong is facing new challenges in the pformation and strategic adjustment of enterprises.

He admitted that the biggest pressure of listing is to ensure the sustainable development of enterprises and ensure good returns to investors.

Today, Anta has "stepped safely" for 15 years, and has a long way to go.

Ding Zhizhong, the young entrepreneur, ranked 273 in the Forbes rich list this year with 1 billion 100 million of his wealth. But I believe his brilliant future is still ahead.