Lining Reinventing Brand Strategy, Nike

Lining reinventing the brand strategy, hoping to make good articles on expanding the international influence of the brand, and really challenge Nike and Adidas. Huge "90 after Lining" several artistic characters, standing aloof and standing in Beijing Tongzhou District Zhongguancun science and Technology Park light mechanical and electrical integration industrial base, Xingguang five street 8 doorway, Lin Dan, Chen Yibing, He Zi, Zhu Qinan, Malone, Guo Yue, Peng Shuai and other popular sports stars.

In June 30th, the Li Ning Co (referred to as Lining) carried out the bid changing ceremony at the headquarters of Beijing. It will continue to use the old Lining LN standard for 20 years and replace it with the new Logo of "Lining cross action". At the same time, the Chinese slogan "anything is possible" has been changed to the English slogan of "MakeTheChange".

"This is the beginning of Lining's brand remolding strategy, which indicates that Lining's brand is closer to the goal of internationalization." Mr. Lining explains the significance of changing the standard. As the slogan "let change happen" translated into Chinese, Lining has made corresponding internationalized adjustments to brand DNA, target audience, product positioning, price strategy, brand connotation, development system and personnel structure.

"90s Lining" surpassed Nike as the second China sports market at the age of 20, and set a strategic goal for the next ten years: 2009 ~2013 for the international stage of preparation. In 2014, ~2018 was the comprehensive internationalization stage, becoming the top 5 of the world sports brand and the first place of the Chinese sports brand.

Just like 7 years ago, Lenovo changed its bid to become an international strategy. Lining, who made the internationalization strategy 3 years ago, hopes to get rid of the international image of "Shanzhai" that has always been wrapped around her. It really challenges Nike and Adidas and makes a good article in expanding the international influence of the brand. However, to truly gain international recognition is far from being a replacement. According to the usual "internationalization" standard, the contribution of overseas market to the company's business needs to reach 20%. At present, Lining's overseas contribution is less than 2%. When international brands are optimistic about the Chinese market, it is not known whether Lining can complete the "sea going" war in 8 years.

"We don't do anything unprepared!" Lining, CEO of Zhang Zhiyong, is full of passion. The CEO, who comes from the financial management, is leading Lining to go to the second round of internationalization. "The new logo has been registered in the world and is waiting for the approval of the local government. It takes about 2~3 years. "

Targeting the new generation of consumer groups

As the chief marketing officer of the Lining brand reinventing the "pushing hands", Fang Shiwei explicitly told reporters that Lining will identify the "post-80s" young sports fans as the core target group, especially the 16~23 year old group.

The 80's will be the main crowd in the future. It is based on the analysis of two consumers' psychological behavior. Firstly, after 80 years, they do not live in a time of material shortage. They are very confident, have seen and contacted many things and do not blindly worship "foreign brands". Second, after 80, few brands associate themselves with their own culture, so their brand loyalty is very low, and the conversion rate is very high. "So I have been saying that in the next ten years, there will be opportunities for international brands in every field. This is a historical proof, for example, in Japan in the 60s of last century, foreign products were also considered to be good. Today, the Japanese are confident, and the history is so repetitive. Zhang Zhiyong said.

In the long term study of Lining's financial reporter Yu Liqi, Lining now faces such a group of consumers: they use MSN, QQ and other instant messaging tools, watch YouTube, and use GoogleEarth to find maps; they may be fans of Han Han or Guo Jingming; they are familiar with NBA stars, and they discuss their collection of shoes on the Internet with European and American "sneakers". They have grown up with the Internet. They know they are unique, and they need a unique style. If they can't do it, they hope that product packaging will help them do it.

According to the characteristics of the consumption crowd in the sports market, the core consumer group of the sports brand is in the age of 14~45, and the most important thing that Lining brand wants to catch is the generation after 80. According to the Market Research Report, Lining's actual consumption population is relatively large at the present age, and the crowd near 35~40 years old is over 50%.

Lining is anxious to change his image. In line with the brand remolding, Lining has also carried out new sports category planning, business area division, product development design and so on. Aiming at young consumer groups, we have developed top sports equipment series (AthleticPro), multi occasion city light sports series (UrbanSports), fashion orange omnipotent series (BrandHeritage), and cross-border design series (Crossover), which invites the cutting-edge artists at home and abroad.

8 years to complete the second round of internationalization

"If I calculate from now on, I hope to make Lining the top 5 brands in the world in 8 years, and make Lining contribute more than 20% in overseas market, and truly internationalize in 2018. Of course, the premise is to become the first in the Chinese market. Zhang Zhiyong introduced.

Lining's first attempt at internationalization came from a business crisis, but it failed in the end. The Asian financial turmoil in 1997 led to a sharp decline in Lining's performance. While Adidas and Nike continued to grow in the mainland, Lining realized that multinational companies had strong ability to resist regional economic crisis and began to test the international market. Since 1999, Lining has set up an international trade department. He has started a series of internationalized actions: he went abroad to participate in sporting goods fair, contacted with overseas distributors, hired first-class designers, editions and professional development and management personnel from Italy, France and South Korea, sponsored foreign sports teams, and opened up a franchised dealer system overseas. "The timing is wrong, the strength is not enough." Financial commentator Lu Xinzhi commented on Lining's initial international decision. But when Lining put his energy on internationalization, the domestic industry competition became severe: in 2003, Lining, who had been leading the market for the first time, was surpassed by Nike for the first time, and was surpassed by Adidas in 2004. The reason for the failure is that international brands quickly seize the first tier cities, and the other is the rise of local brands such as Anta and PEAK, and beat Lining as their stage dream. {page_break}

In 2005, the new CEO Zhang Zhiyong made a strategic adjustment and decided to "build an international brand first, then open up the international market", and suspended international action. 4 years later, this strategy began to show clear results. In 2009, Lining realized sales revenue of 8 billion 387 million yuan, an increase of 25.4%, and net profit increased by 31%, to 945 million yuan. Champion is still Nike, although the specific data is unknown, but professional analysis, the gap between Nike and Lining should be very small. Adidas ranked third in sales of 7 billion yuan.

After nearly 6 years of trial and error, Lining really explored the feasible direction of internationalization. "The current strategy is clear and practical." Lu Xinzhi is very optimistic about the potential of Lining to restart the second world of internationalization. After all, the current domestic market is second, which is not the same as the gold content of the first place in the domestic market 10 years ago.

It is reported that Lining has begun an attempt to internationalize in Southeast Asia and the United States. In Southeast Asia, a company specializing in badminton sports, mainly promotes badminton products, has R & D, creative centers in the United States, and employs international talent resources. "The two major overseas markets in Southeast Asia and the United States are our tentative moves." Zhang Zhiyong said Lining opened the first store in the United States at the beginning of this year. "Put it there first and see how business is."

In order to get closer to international brands, Lining began to raise prices. "Every quarter is up 3%, 5%, or 10%, 12%. We need to judge whether the brand assets are continuously improving and whether the price pressure test reports are supported or not according to the products. These are technical problems, and strategically, we must move forward." Zhang Zhiyong hopes that the price gap with Nike will be smaller and smaller, and it is likely to be less than 10% in the future.

Compared to the actual market share, Zhang Zhiyong is more concerned about the "brain share": "for example, consumers who usually only afford to buy Volkswagen will still like the brand of Porsche. When he is rich and can afford it, the share of the mind will affect the market share at this time. Price increases will have adverse effects at this stage, but brand increases can increase the share of consumers' brains. "