Li Ning Co: Olympic Champion Comes Back Again

By the end of the year, Zhang Zhiyong had been delighted recently.

The 39 year old Li Ning Co Ltd CEO released the news of Li Ning Co's acquisition of 57.5% stake in the famous table tennis brand "red double happiness" on 15 November.

"This purchase is exhilarating and exciting. The brand of red double happiness is a world-famous indoor sports equipment manufacturer, such as table tennis and badminton."

Zhang Zhiyong said cheerfully, "acquisition has strengthened Lining's position in the fast-growing indoor sports products such as table tennis and badminton."

Since CFO was promoted to CEO in 2002, Zhang Zhiyong has been wearing "Lining" clothes for a long time and asked her son to choose "Lining".

In 2004, when the Li Ning Co, which ranked first in the sales of domestic sports brands, was listed in Hongkong, Zhang Zhiyong, who was calm and calm, was very excited. After that, Li Ning Co began its governance and brand operation as a public company.

This standardized operation is of great significance to the internationalization of Li Ning Co today.

In China, table tennis and badminton have always been the leading position in the world. With many enthusiasts, coupled with the enthusiasm of the public to participate in sports, which is aroused by the 2008 Olympic Games approaching, Zhang Zhiyong believes that the acquisition will play a great role in promoting the Li Ning Co. "In the future, we will seize the new opportunities to achieve the synergy between the two well-known brands in brand marketing, marketing promotion, sponsorship, channel optimization and corporate governance, so as to bring the group's overall development to a new level."

The acquisition of red double happiness is only part of Li Ning Co's multi brand development strategy. Earlier this year, the company launched a new brand "new move".

"New action" is a brand for supermarket stores. Now it has entered 20 supermarkets, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Lianhua and Carrefour.

"New mobile" has exceeded our expectations after listing, and we plan to have 200 sales outlets this year.

Zhang Zhiyong was satisfied with the market reaction.

And let Li Ning Co all staff feel a happy change, is Lining moved to a new headquarters base.

This is an industrial park on the outskirts of Beijing. It covers a vast area. It has not only the swimming pool and gym facilities for employees, but also a passionate theme park with strong sports style.

"It feels great to work here."

Zhang Weifeng, a professional manager of Li Ning Co culture promotion, said he and his colleagues are working on a historical exhibition area in the middle of the modern office building.

They are dazzling for the rapid development of enterprises, and even miss the sports spirit precipitated in the process of development.

"Lining headquarters will showcase the corporate image of Li Ning Co as China's first sports brand and the five largest brands in the world, and become the world's most distinctive group headquarters in the sports industry."

"The new Lining headquarters means a new starting point for the Li Ning Co," Zhang Zhiyong said.

In addition to the administrative center, there are two major departments in the new headquarters, namely, R & D and marketing.

There was no way for Li Ning Co to win the sponsorship of Olympic sponsorship in a burn contest. By signing a contract with CCTV sports channel at the end of last year, all the hosts and reporters of the sports channel were dressed in Li Ning Co's products for two years from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2008, wearing the Lining clothing brand and making "live" advertisements before the national audience, which has won the admiration of almost everyone.

"2008 is an important year for sports brands. At this important node, the Lining brand will make a difference. The Olympic strategy is our top priority."

Zhang Zhiyong said that the Li Ning Co has formulated the 2008 Olympic strategy with hero as the theme, and launched the three major plans of "heroic team", "hero gesture" and "hero return".

Specifically, Lining signed the entire Olympic team of Sweden and Spain and the Argentina Olympic basketball team, and continued to support China's diving, table tennis, gymnastics and shooting four gold medal national teams.

In the upcoming 2007, Zhang Zhiyong's private collection also contains a new collection -- Oriental Banpo, which is full of Oriental elements. The basketball shoes that won the IF design award were placed together with the "flying armor" which also won the IF design prize in 2006.

"Lining is international, and Lining is Oriental," Zhang Zhiyong said.

The wisdom of the East and the mind of the world -- exclusive interview with Li Ning Co CEO Zhang Zhiyong Business Weekly: what products do you normally wear in Lining?

As a special consumer, what personal experience do you have personally?

Zhang Zhiyong: "Lining" clothes, shoes, backpacks and so on, almost all categories of products I have used.

I mostly regard myself as an ordinary consumer, and I will give feedback to you in order to feel comfortable or uncomfortable.

Standing in the perspective of ordinary consumers, I think Lining's products are very comfortable.

These comfortable feelings come from the continuous improvement of product technology content and design sense.

For example, the Li Ning Co R & D center in Hongkong has 18 designers with international standards, such as our latest R & D core shock absorption technology platform, "Li Ninggong".

Product R & D is a continuous record and record.

Business Week: your slogan is "anything is possible". How did the Li Ning Co explain and convey this idea in the past year?

Zhang Zhiyong: Li Ning Co, as the leader of China's sporting goods industry, takes sports as a mission to stimulate people's desire and strength to break through.

Li Ning Co is committed to combining the wisdom of the East with modern technology in an innovative way. It constantly promotes China's sports industry and sprints towards the goal of international first-class brands. This is our constant interpretation and exploration of the belief that "everything is possible".

We have tried many successful ways to convey this brand idea to consumers. It is one of the most important ways to improve brand awareness through sports resources.

Lining brand has the sports resources that can best reflect Lining's brand spirit at home and abroad, such as the 4 Olympic gold medal winning teams in China: table tennis team, diving team, shooting team and gymnastics team, such as Argentina men's basketball team, Spain national basketball team and so on.

In the upcoming Olympic Games, they will again demonstrate the noble spirit of sport and convey the idea of "everything is possible".

BusinessWeek: how can we distinguish between the brand connotation of competitors such as Adidas, Nike, Anta and so on, so that Chinese consumers can accept "everything is possible" widely and accurately?

Zhang Zhiyong: compared with Adidas, Nike and other international brands, we have been making perfect combination of ancient oriental wisdom and modern technology for many years. Now it has been widely recognized and welcomed by professional athletes and consumers at home and abroad.

Among them, the "oriental characteristics" with modern aesthetic feeling is our biggest advantage from our competitors.

For example, the Banpo, which has just won the IF Design Award and has been touted for a long time, has been incorporated into the product design of the ancient Chinese Banpo culture, and this perception of culture is a blend of blood and blood, which is what we call the modern interpretation of oriental characteristics.

Business Week: after BELLE's listing, it will increase its investment in the "Tao Bo sports" shop with its thousands of retail stores, and expand rapidly, together with thousands of retail outlets such as "interactive sports" and "leading sports". The prototype of sports products will emerge. Will Lining feel the pressure?

How is Lining's channel construction carried out?

Zhang Zhiyong: each has its own advantages, not pressure.

Lining brand has a high degree of awareness in China, so we can only have more than 10% direct battalions and give the rest to partners.

In the channel construction, at present, a very important part of our strategy is to establish flagship stores in major cities, such as the opening of the flagship store of Lining Wangfujing in early November, and its most distinctive feature -- indoor basketball court, personalized customization service of embroidery machine, and so on, creating a new model of the flagship store of domestic sports brand.

In the near future, a larger flagship store will open in another city.

For super large cities, focusing on flagship stores and image shops, narrowing the distance between brands and consumers is still the focus of our strategy.

The flagship store can enhance the brand image and create a space for consumers to truly experience Lining products.

In key cities, we strive to enable consumers to enter the Lining store to feel the culture of Lining coming to us. We can also touch and appreciate the technological characteristics of Lining products, including design, technology, material research and so on.

In addition, we have a system of urban grading, in addition to front-line and super large first tier cities, we will continue to stabilize in the two or three tier cities.