The Status Quo Of Domestic Sports Brands: "Midlife Crisis" Can Not Afford To Hurt

Li Ning Co suffered internal and external troubles this year.

Recently, some media broke the news that Zhang Xiaoyan, director of the Li Ning Co and the director of external public affairs, confirmed the news of the resignation to the media.

In November 13th, Xu Maochun, the chief product officer of Lining brand, will also officially leave. Within two weeks, two executives from Lining have left.

Lining is facing difficulties that he has never encountered before.

In the domestic sports industry, not only Lining "depressed", entered the October, the major domestic sports brands announced third quarter performance, including PEAK, Anta and other brands, including growth slowed down.

At present, the industry is generally not optimistic about sports stocks in the mainland. According to media reports, following the prospect of many Chinese brokerages looking down on the Chinese sporting goods industry, Goldman Sachs has joined the singing contest, saying that the mainland sporting goods industry has entered the middle of the lifecycle, thereby cutting the price of six sporting goods shares, of which the target price of PEAK has been cut by 60% to 2.7 yuan, and it has been excluded from the Asia Pacific buying list.

It can be seen that domestic sports

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In mid October, Lining announced the third quarter and the National Day holiday in 2011, the same store growth data of Lining.

Data show that in the third quarter, the growth rate of Lining's same store sales is still low. The same store sales growth during the National Day golden week is still low.

And the third quarter growth slowed down in PEAK, while PEAK's same store sales in the third quarter increased by 6.2% compared with the same period last year.

Anta's third quarter operation is also not optimistic. In the third quarter, the same store sales growth fell to the number of units, while the retail terminal discount rate also expanded.

In addition, Anta planned to add 600 to 800 shops next year, and now it may also be adjusted downward because of the increase in the number of outlets.

Compared to this year's gloomy situation, the past five years have been the glorious five years of China's sporting goods industry. In just a few years, the growth of Lining and Anta's performance has been strong.

Xiong Xiaokun, a light industry researcher at CIC, told the media: "on the one hand, over the past few years, the development of sports apparel industry has been expanding too fast, resulting in a backlog of large inventories of retailers, which will affect the development of Companies in the latter stage. On the other hand, under the domestic inflation environment, consumers have the tendency to reduce consumption of sporting goods, and the bias increases the stock pressure, leading directly to the decline in performance."

At present, there is stock pressure in major sports apparel industry. We need to gradually digest existing stock and reduce the output of next batch of products, and the sports apparel industry has entered the adjustment period.

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Homogenization serious brand core value is not high.

The dilemma of domestic sports brands is the most typical of Lining, the leader of domestic sports brands.

Some securities companies even predict that Lining will not only be surpassed by Anta but also be caught up by other second-line brands next year.

The story of Lining's growth represents the plight of the whole Chinese manufacturing industry. After the failure of the brand remolding, the problem that highlights is the dilemma faced by the whole industry in China: the core value of the brand itself is not improved, the homogenization phenomenon is serious, and there is no irreplaceable nature.

Most of China's local sporting goods brands start from the manufacturing industry, start from OEM foundry, and gradually develop into brand operation.

But the difference of brand and the added value of brand are generally low, and the innovation ability of domestic brand in product design needs to be strengthened. The similarities and differences among brands are often present, and the differentiation is not obvious. The phenomenon of homogenization is more serious. It is only through advertising some basic performance to appeal for some differentiation, but in fact, it is not too strong in the end consumer.

In addition, marketing tools are also stuck in the same old way. For example, traditional channels such as sponsorship and TV station naming and so on are scarce. Even if they burn money, the effect will be less and less ideal.

At present, the plight of domestic sports brands is just like the early rise of Chinese household electrical appliance enterprises. Almost anyone can engage in manufacturing or business, but the brand needs genius, reputation, creativity and perseverance, and China lacks this capability.

In order to get rid of the dilemma of homogenization, enterprises should reconsider how to seek the next development from the aspect of upgrading the core value of the brand, or differentially shaping or integrating the industrial chain.

Market channels compete for victory and defeat.

The industry is not too optimistic about domestic sports brand another basis is that the two or three tier market competition for battle will become increasingly fierce, and domestic enterprises are afraid of competition.

So far, the domestic sports goods brand outlets have 70% layout in two or three line cities, so the increase of the number of stores in the two or three line and below cities is one of the "trump cards" of the domestic sports brand performance growth.

Let's take a look at the number of retail outlets for sports goods, and the number of stores at home and abroad has reached more than 40000. The consumption potential of sports goods in the two or three tier market has been basically excavated, and the market will usher in the integration stage.

With the increasing rents of the two or three tier cities, it is more and more difficult to open new stores.

In addition, domestic sports brands still face challenges from foreign brands in the market channel strategy.

In 2010, Nike China and Adidas China launched their five year plan in succession. They all indicated that in the next five years, the new stores in the two or three tier market would be increased, and the products that were closer to the two or three tier market would be echoed. The target market would be directed at the main market of the domestic sporting goods brand, and the competition in the future two or three level market would be more fierce and the price war would be intensified.

A sporting goods market observer said: "the domestic sporting goods brand will enter the crucial stage of life and death.

In the past, people who got the channel got the world; in the future, those who lost their channels lost the world.