Anta President Ding Shizhong: National Brand &Nbsp; International Management

The financial crisis has brought about problems such as market slump and capital chain tension to multinational companies, but it has brought Chinese national brands to their own development opportunities. They have been involved in the marketing activities of large international sports events.

In June 23, 2009, Anta (China) Limited (2020.HK) (Anta) jointly announced with the Chinese Olympic Committee that Anta became the "Olympic Sports partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee in 2009~2012" and won the huge market development resources at the core of the Chinese Olympic Committee and the Chinese sports delegation. According to Ma Jilong, director of the market development committee of the Chinese Olympic Committee, the sponsorship amount is "no less than the sponsorship threshold for the 2008 TOP Olympic Games". One data may help us to estimate how much Anta has spent: Lenovo, a Chinese class Lenovo, was a TOP sponsor at the 2008 Olympic Games, and it paid a price of $65 million, which was equivalent to about 550 million yuan.

Can this costly cooperation bring Anta a new look? How can domestic brands go out to find a balance between pre investment and subsequent output? How can Anta become a competitive and influential dancer on the international stage in the process of domestic brands coming from behind the scenes? On these issues, "China business" reporter interviewed Anta CEO Ding Shi Zhong in Jinjiang, Fujian.

　 Be a popular sports brand

"If we can not represent the spirit of Chinese sports, we will not be able to become the leading brand of China's mass sports products market."

China Business Daily: since Anta cooperated with the Chinese Olympic Committee in 2009 and has become the "partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee's sports apparel" in 2009~2012, Anta has provided equipment for the 11 major international comprehensive games of the Chinese sports delegation, including the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou and the London Olympics in 2012. Why did Anta do so when the outside world questioned whether it could cooperate with the Chinese Olympic Committee to get good returns? How did it consider it?

Ding Shizhong: corporate strategy is related to brand positioning. Anta is located in China's popular sports goods brand, we are facing the real sense of the general consumer. Unlike Nike, Adidas and other international brands, they are dominated by a second tier city. Therefore, what we need to do is to make our main consumer groups, that is, the Chinese people, regard Anta as a professional sports brand, and establish the credibility of Anta in their hearts.

In addition, there is a very interesting game rule in the field of sports brand, that is, the combination of sports brand and sports resources at any level determines the position of sports brand in the industry. Therefore, for us, Anta will become the leading brand of the Chinese popular sports market. If we can not represent the spirit of Chinese sports, we will not be able to become the leading brand of the Chinese popular sports market. The combination of the brand with the Chinese Olympic Committee can represent the spirit of Chinese sports on the one hand; on the other hand, it also provides a good starting point for Anta marketing from the perspective of concept and image.

If we could not cooperate with the Chinese Olympic Committee a year ago, our valuation will never reach the third level of the world. Our market value has always been the champion of the local sporting goods market, ahead of Lining and China trends, and even surpassed some of the international brands such as Puma and MIZUNO.

Our cooperation with the Chinese Olympic Committee has gone through a whole 4 years. In these 4 years, the marketing plan of the company is different in every competition and every stage. Brand is not effective for a year, and it should be done for a long time. If Hongkong's East Asian Games are the starting point of Anta's sponsorship of the Chinese Olympic Committee, then the Winter Olympics will be a better performance after Anta's sponsorship of the Olympic Committee. Including the Asian Games Anta made these awards clothing, which used the highest scientific and technological content of all previous awards clothing. This Asian Games is also a great exposure to Anta products. It is the most valuable sport event in our 4 year cycle. I believe that through the Asian Games in Guangzhou, Anta can stand on a higher platform.

China Business Daily: Anta's patronage is a great opportunity to become a first-rate brand. But some people think that Anta has a big gap in marketing and R & D with front-line brands. For example, Adidas and Nike have been very mature in sports resource integration and brand building. Besides, it has absolute right to speak in many individual competitions. Besides sponsoring the Chinese Olympic Committee, how can Anta catch up with its competitors in other marketing channels and R & D?

Ding Shizhong: in different scale and different stages, the innovation of enterprises is different.

In the past, eighty or ninety of China's national team's uniforms were sponsored by international brands, and now seventy or eighty of them are sponsored by Chinese brands. This figure proves that the national brand is increasingly recognized by our Chinese consumers, and its influence is also increasing.

From an innovative perspective, our R & D costs have been increasing and occupy 3%~3.5% of sales every year, which is comparable to the level of R & D input of leading international brands.

In marketing, we are more concerned about whether investment is consistent with the needs of consumers. At present, we have more than 7000 stores. In the future, we will gradually divide them from channels. For example, there are three different types of shops: Anta's children's shop, sports life shop and main store. In these more than 7000 stores, different shops occupy a certain proportion. Children's shops account for 6%~7%, and sports shops account for 12%, which account for 20% of the total two, and 80% of Anta's main brand stores.

At every stage, we have a very clear theme in every shop. We call it seasonal theme. For example, now our theme is the Asian Games, so the whole window displays the products related to the Asian Games, and every shop is made into a theme city. However, the goods on display only account for 5% or 10% of the total sales. We ask that the shop is not simply giving consumers a pair of shoes or clothes, but a very good story. This attracts consumers into the shops to see the whole merchandise series. After the Asian Games, in December, you can see that we have a complete KG (Kevin Garnett) series of story marketing at the terminal. {page_break}

Family business and international management

"Family business and family management are two concepts. In the process of internationalization of enterprise management, the culture of founders must be closely integrated with corporate culture, so that culture can be stable."

China Business Daily: as you mentioned just now, Anta's main goal in the future is to compete with international enterprises. The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010 and the London Olympics in 2012 are all excellent opportunities for China's local sports brands to internationalize. But apart from sponsoring international sporting events, how can Anta get out of the country? After all, Chinese local brands are not easy to enter the international arena.

Ding Shizhong: in fact, the premise of internationalization is that enterprises must accumulate their own human resources, financial resources and the competitiveness of commodities with international competition. In addition, with the improvement of the national cultural competitiveness and the growth of enterprises not lagging behind the growth rate of the country, the internationalization of the brand will come to an end.

For Anta, there are two things that are being done: one is the internationalization of brands, for example, Anta's products will be sold to the United States and Europe, and they will strive to be recognized by their own consumers. At the present stage of Anta's development, its brand influence and marketing resources are still more targeted at China. We believe that if our roots are to succeed in China, we must abide by the main battlefield of China. In fact, the competition of Chinese mainland is already very international. The major brands in the world have come in and compete with each other. Facts have proved that Anta is not inferior to them. We have been the first place in the sports shoes market for nine consecutive years. In terms of total sales, we predict that Anta will grow very well this year, and China's local sales should exceed the vast majority of international brands this year.

The second is the internationalization of management, for example, the construction of internal corporate culture, the carding of strategies, the integration of IT, and so on. A series of management strategies should be internationalized.

China business newspaper: when it comes to the internationalization of management, an unavoidable problem for Chinese local family businesses is how to balance the interests between family members and external professional managers with the development of modern company system. When a Anta family enterprise started to consider Anta's governance in this area, did you change your work and responsibilities in the past few years?

Ding Shizhong: my point of view is that family businesses and family management are two concepts. Family management is in an enterprise. The family business is a holding company of the family, like Li Jiacheng and Terry Gou's enterprises are family businesses, but at the same time their enterprises all highly reflect the professionalization of management.

Over the years, my share of management in micro and macro management is different. My responsibilities at different stages of the company must be different. In the past, when the scale of enterprises was not large, I was doing more concrete things. But with the development of enterprises, I will play more and more important roles in managing macro issues. But when I play the role of macro manager, I still can not get away from micro management. After the company went public in 2007, the core problem is that it must become a modern enterprise. Therefore, if we want to compete with international companies, management must be systematized, standardized and streamlined. All of the work we have done in recent years is aligned with companies that can participate in international competition.

In the past, Anta's two pioneering elders, one is my cousin, and the other is my brother. They have played a great role in Anta since they were founded. They were directors and vice presidents, but now they are in the second tier. It is not that they have no ability, because their identity and status may have some contradictions with the systematization, professionalization, internationalization process and management of the company.

However, there are still many people who think that family businesses can't do well. In fact, the successful Chinese run enterprises all over the world are family businesses. A few days ago, some Hongkong investors talked to me about this issue and talked about corporate culture and corporate control. They said that now they buy stocks, and they do not buy the founders who do not participate in management. There are also reasons for this. Although the management of family businesses must be professional and systematic, the founders still play a role in affecting the soul of enterprises in the whole enterprise. Therefore, in the process of internationalization of enterprise management, the culture of the founders must be closely integrated with the corporate culture so as to make the culture stable.

China Business Daily: from Anta's recent financial reports and large marketing, it can be seen that Anta is expanding rapidly. However, for many companies, the internal management problems brought about by the rapid expansion can not be underestimated. In Anta, the number of airborne troops has increased over the past two years. So, what specific management strategies do Anta have in terms of cultural stability and employee cohesion you mentioned just now?

Ding Shizhong: I really started thinking about corporate culture in 2008. At that time, I felt that the company's cultural construction needs to be strengthened. I concentrated on solving three problems: first, the butt of the head of some departments decided the head; the second problem was the cultural integration between the new team and the original team of Anta; another problem was the collaboration between departments and departments. In response to these three questions, we launched the project of enterprise culture construction. At that time, we first took the lead in doing a cultural diagnosis and doing interviews with employees. We organized several rounds of seminars for supervisors, managers, and directors, and then let everyone talk freely at the seminar. On the one hand, we reviewed the valuable culture that Anta once had in history. On the other hand, we summed up the problems in the current culture which do not match the long-term development of enterprises.

When the company finished the diagnosis, it quickly formed a set of cultural manuals. The cultural system was formed in the process of communication with employees. It is recognized by everyone. Therefore, the consensus level is very high. Generally speaking, these things should be advocated by Anta. This is also a set of cultural systems that can unite people's hearts.