Anta's Firm "Middle Step"

Ding Zhizhong, chairman and CEO of Anta Sports Products Limited board of directors: - Ding Zhizhong led Anta to adhere to the "Chinese word step" - that is, along the track of China's market and mid-range products, we should walk on the road with ease. Ding Zhizhong disclosed that if there is an opportunity to carry out some mergers and acquisitions, the goal is a high-end brand that can complement each other with Anta. "The integration of the industry in the next 5 years is inevitable. There are many variables to integrate and integrate." Ding Zhizhong led Anta to adhere to the "Chinese character step" - that is, along the track of China's market and mid-range products, we should walk on the road with ease. In November 29th, in the 90 minute interview of Anta office building in Jinjiang, the core of Ding Zhizhong's talk was "grass roots" and "China". "The mass line is very good. Anta was originally China's pure grass roots!" In 1987, at the Wangfujing in Beijing, Ding Zhizhong, 17, sold 600 pairs of sneakers produced in Jinjiang. In 2007, Ding Zhizhong, a 37 year old Anta Sports Products Limited at the HKEx, led the Anta Sports Products Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Anta") to be listed as chairman and chairman of the board. Anta sales in 2011 reached 12 billion yuan, becoming the "China first, the world tenth" sporting goods company, is Ding Zhizhong's short-term goal. Therefore, some people say that Anta has shifted its strategic benchmark from Lining to Nike. Others say that Anta needs to be "Anta of the world". In the face of these conjectures, Ding Zhizhong said there was no benchmark and no international temptation. What he needs is to insist on pragmatism and wolf spirit, and stick to the word "Zhong". 8 years of exploring the grass-roots Road, from 1987 to 2005, Ding Zhizhong and Anta took the road of grass-roots exploration. Unlike his father's accumulation of capital for family businesses, the experience of selling sports shoes at Wangfujing in Beijing made young Ding Zhizhong accumulate the "first pot gold" of brand and marketing consciousness. In Ding Zhizhong's view, there was no big difference between the start of Anta's business and other private enterprises in China. He summed up the successful course of Anta's entrepreneurship to seize five major turning points from the development of China's industry and market development. In 1994, Ding Zhizhong's father-in-law registered and founded Anta in Hongkong. In the same year, Anta set up Anta Fujian company in Jinjiang, capital of Fujian province for 500 thousand yuan, and began to manufacture and sell sports shoes. Thus, Ding Zhizhong, who has already had a successful case in the family, is also responsible for the operation of Anta Fujian. The newborn Anta was not covered by Lining's Olympic aura, nor did a big consortium such as Jianlibao help. Its start was too low. In the mid 90s of last century, a large number of state owned sporting goods brands such as Binxing, Huili and so on fell down. The huge market only had Lining's light. At the same time, almost all sporting goods companies, including Jinjiang, are doing international brand OEM business. "Anta has seized this good market opportunity." Ding Zhizhong said Anta resolutely abandoned the OEM export order route and began to enter the domestic market. This is seen as the first major turning point that Anta has seized. At the beginning of its business, Anta insisted on the positioning of the middle and low grass roots and the idea of "the same price is worth the money". In order to maintain core competitiveness, Ding Zhizhong has noticed the human factor. From the beginning of marketing brand director, he began to introduce professional managers. "The boss has a way of treating you as a boss, and you have the means to regard yourself as the boss." They want to see their management as their boss, fully believe in the work done by the senior staff, and hope that the employees will get the best income from the industry after they pay. They also hope that their employees dare to challenge their boss. "Whoever has the ability will be able to challenge CEO." After taking a place, Ding Zhizhong turned the target into the top of the domestic industry. In the less intense domestic market, many enterprises still have no brand awareness. He has seized the second turning points of "making a brand". In 1999, Ding Zhizhong held a high opinion on the board of directors. Finally, he signed Kong Linghui with 1 million 600 thousand yuan to endorse Anta, and a "I choose, I like" intensive bombing on CCTV 5 channel. In 2000, Kong Linghui won the Olympic Games in Sydney, and Anta was famous all night. In 2001, Anta seized third important turning points to accelerate the jump from the production of single sports shoes to the provision of comprehensive sporting goods. After that, Anta began the road of sports marketing. From 2002 to 2005, Anta began sponsoring the professional sports league in China, and was praised as "the engine of China league tournament". Taking part in professional events, Anta has discovered how to enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises, which is regarded as the opportunity to seize fourth turning points. Before the 2006 market transformation, Anta did not put forward the demand for listing. In 2003, Ding Zhizhong gradually realized that he could not control Anta's bigger and bigger business with previous business habits and family management. If he does not put the ownership relationship of his family members on the legal documents, it will cause trouble in the future. This year, the members of the Ding family began to clarify the ownership relationship. According to Anta chief operating officer Lai Shi Hsien, it was during this year that investment banks found Anta and mobilized its listing, but Anta, who was buried in brand promotion, channel construction and standardization of company business, remained unmoved. For Anta, a more significant turning point was in 2005. Ding Zhizhong is more and more aware that the development of enterprises will be limited without upgrading and brand upgrading. So, Anta invited AT corney, a consultancy, to jointly confirm the strategic plan for the next 5 years, including market positioning, core values and development goals. After the investigation, the two sides' analysis of Anta's market position is that Anta's dominance is in the control of the low and middle end market. About this market, about 500 million Chinese consumers can't afford Anta, but with the increase of their income, they will become Anta's target customers. Subsequently, JW Wei redefined the brand positioning for Anta, and put forward the slogan "never stop". The expression of "never stop" is limited to two kinds: first, ordinary people achieve breakthroughs through efforts; the two is from success to failure and then to success. Since then, Anta has suppressed the impulse to raise prices, got rid of the temptation of entertainment direction, focused on professional sports, and began to strategically search for some famous athletes who have been struggling. After the direction was determined, Ding Zhizhong found that the above strategy could not be implemented under the original production oriented organization structure of the company. Thus, in order to completely transform the marketing orientation, Anta hired Mercer consulting company, designed the organizational structure and the whole assessment system. In 2006, Anta decided to enter the capital market. In October, Anta held the first high-level decision-making meeting attended by lawyers, accountants and others. Taking into account the great opportunity for the Olympic Games to enhance corporate brand, it decided to complete the listing at the latest in the first half of 2008 and gradually adjust it to July 2007. In March of this year, Anta submitted a listing application to the HKEx, which was listed on July 10th and raised about HK $3 billion 500 million. Before the listing, Anta made three major changes: first, redefining the enterprise development strategy and brand positioning in the next 5 years; and second, restructuring the organization, changing the production oriented organizational structure which was originally adjusted several times to brand oriented; third, reforming the salary system, and designing the salary and performance appraisal system based on the average value of the first tier cities in the country. Chinese brands plus grassroots routes have even attracted rockets boss Alexander. Alexander, who is looking for investment opportunities in China, has subscribed 8.2% stake in the issue of HK $234 million to become the largest shareholder outside Anta under the recommendation of his investment company. Ding Zhizhong believes that many large international investors have expressed their wishes as a cornerstone investor, but they have no direct relationship with Anta's industry. Relatively speaking, the Rockets have the biggest influence in China because of owning Yao Ming, which is a market opportunity for Anta. The most striking moves of Anta at present are two: first, alignment with the Rockets; and two, the development of retail business and the control of channel terminal market. Ding Zhizhong admits that the alliance with the Rockets is an important part of Anta's new round of sports marketing. Signing Francis and Scola endorsement is one of the results of Alexander's stake in Anta. As the biggest sponsor of China's CBA at present, Anta sends some of CBA's most potential players to rocket training camp every year. In addition, after the end of each season, the Rockets will also make systematic promotional activities with Anta in China. In 2006, Anta set up Xiamen investment company and was injected with the company to set up Shanghai frontline sporting goods Development Co., Ltd., and quickly set up a branch in Suzhou, Beijing and Guangzhou to operate Adidas, Reebok and Kappa's retail business. Ding Zhizhong does not think that this will dilute the Anta brand, because Anta has the relative sales advantage in the two or three line terminal, the sales growth in the first line is also very fast, but Adidas and Reebok have the superiority mainly in the first and second line terminals. He values the growth of the fastest growing channel. He believes that the frontline will shoulder the responsibility of building high-end brand experience and building Anta flagship store this year. "We need a team with international retail management experience." He said. As a result, Anta also pushed ahead with the terminal upgrading plan of "opening 1000 new outlets, closing 500 outlets and transforming 700 outlets" this year. Ding Zhizhong disclosed that if there is an opportunity to carry out some mergers and acquisitions, the goal is a high-end brand that can complement each other with Anta. "We have about 3000000000 Yuan in cash on our account and are fully capable of acquiring it. The integration of China's industry in the next 5 years is inevitable. There are many variables to integrate and integrate. In order to improve management, Anta even said that future core posts such as CEO and COO could make sense. Since this year, Anta has summed up the strategic plan of its implementation quarterly, and its upgrading strategy, including product, brand and marketing, has been well implemented. In terms of product upgrading, Anta will continue to maintain a larger proportion of its own shoes and a comprehensive strength. On the basis of the sports science laboratory, the cooperation with universities has been stepped up, including cooperation with Belgium and Japanese American designers. And has begun to assess the market making plan, plans to launch children under 14 years of age sporting goods, so as to widen the target group positioning for 14~29 years old. In the distribution mode, Ding Zhizhong continued to emphasize the core values of distributors and suppliers in November 29th at the six general managers' meeting, which is to let the other party make money. He pointed out that compared with Japan, which has five or six well-known sports brands, China has no reason not to create several own sports brands, but if a brand is not bigger in China, it will not become a world-class brand. Ding Zhizhong, born in December 1970, Jinjiang, Quanzhou, aged 17 to Beijing, promoted 600 pairs of Jinjiang sports shoes. In July 1994, she joined Anta as director of Anta Fujian. In 2000, she became president of Anta China. July 10, 2007, Anta listed in Hongkong. Hobbies: reading, playing table tennis, and chatting with friends.