XTEP Has Enjoyed Ten Years Of Achievements And Is Still In Doubt.

If the following ten years, or even more than ten years, are used to measure the dimensions of China's sports apparel market,

It's just the first step.

In the future, whether we can break through from the second camp and succeed in the first group is still unknown.

Money can not solve all problems, but it can make the problem more leisurely.

After Lining took out the gold silver from the investor's pocket, XTEP also followed the "old brother".

Recently, XTEP International Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as XTEP) is composed of 8 Banks and has been signed by Hang Seng Bank Limited as a syndicate authorized to coordinate the arrangement of persons and financing agents. The sum is HK $140 million 400 thousand and US $82 million (equivalent to HK $780 million) for a period of 3 years.

According to XTEP's official account, the amount will provide the necessary operating capital for the group's future business to achieve sustained growth. XTEP will be able to do what it wants to do more easily, which is XTEP's dream all along.

XTEP president

Without any taboo, it has declared that it wants to be a "Chinese Puma" idea, and goes down the fashion and sports clothing brand.

Although in China, it was an unknown road without any experience. In the Chinese market at that time, even Nike and Adidas were only occasionally appearing in several dark blue shoes. White, black, gray and other monochromatic products firmly occupied the mainstream of the market.

Now, perhaps more people will praise Lao Ding's foresight and recognition, and praise the wise man for planning a most suitable path for XTEP to survive.

However, in fact, there is a bit of helplessness in it. In China's sports apparel market, the horse racing enclosure is almost completed, leaving no room for the latecomers.

Nike and Adidas have obvious advantages in the professional sports equipment of high-end market, no matter from professional level or market awareness, they are not comparable to Chinese sports brands; local brand bigwigs, Lining and Anta are also fighting on the road of becoming professional brand image.

In order to break through quickly and get a share of the cake, XTEP had to voluntarily abandon the professional sports market and position itself in the field of fashion sports.

Obviously, such strategies accurately hit the market demand.

In 2001, XTEP hired Nicholas Tse, the then Heavenly King artist of Hongkong, as the brand spokesperson and image ambassador of nearly 5 million yuan each year, and publicized the brand promotion by entertainment marketing.

The most representative product "beacon fire shoes" has also become famous at the foot of the giant star war, and its annual sales volume has still been so shocking 1 million 200 thousand pairs.

XTEP's performance in Hongkong, which has been on the market for many years, is on the bright side.

In 2011, the total revenue of XTEP group reached 5 billion 539 million 600 thousand yuan, an increase of 24% compared with the same period last year. The income of XTEP brand products increased by 28% yuan to 5 billion 374 million 900 thousand yuan, and the gross profit margin of the group increased by 0.2 percentage point to 40.8%. Under the background of the overall economic slowdown, the net profit 18.77% growth rate was ranked first among the five largest local sports brands.

"XTEP's strategy has been very successful and its marketing has been very successful.

In the near future, XTEP will enter the international market, and it will get a good growth. "

Xia Jinhua, chairman of Beijing Huaqi Century Consulting Co. Ltd., said that XTEP has found its advantages in a country that seems to love sports and does not have a high level of sports lifestyle.

But, "the market is changing, so it is difficult to assess the sustainability of the advantages."

Ma Gang, an independent critic of shoe and clothing industry, affirmed XTEP's courage to break through and explore bravely, but also told XTEP's worries to new financial reporters.

Fashion sports don't look so perfect.

Embarrassment of "sandwich"

Generally speaking, sports brands can be divided into two major camps: one is the sports brand which is mainly professional sports equipment represented by Nike, Adidas, Lining, Anta, and the other is the fashion sports brand featuring fashion elements and entertainment stars as brand characteristics, including kappa, Puma and XTEP.

In the mature market, the former achieved much more than the latter, while the sports market is not mature enough, so far, the brand advantage of professional sports can not be seen.

"Fashion movement must be firmly established in the sphere of sports, otherwise it will easily fall into the sea of leisure products."

Beijing CEO, a key sports consulting firm, told New Financial reporters that XTEP's brand strategy may not be clear enough.

Zhang Qing's evidence is that XTEP's 10th anniversary celebration not long ago was mentioned by Ding Shuibo.

"Some people say that the sports consumption demand of Chinese consumers is insufficient, which is not enough to support the professional sports market.

But how can we explain that in the Chinese market, Nike is more expensive, more professional and better performing than you? "Zhang Qing believes that the real reason for the strong movement in the domestic market lies in the fact that" many manufacturers can not predict when China's sporting goods market will be synchronized with that of the country, so that both sides of the product will exert their strength to meet the needs of professional consumers and to cater to the needs of fashion consumers. "

However, fish and bear's paws are hard to get together.

The fashion orientation is to win some fashionable young people's favor, but at the same time, it will lose more or less the share of professional sports market.

Therefore, "if the enterprise is not firmly established in the scope of sports, it will surely fall into a vast ocean of leisure."

In Zhang Qing's view, apart from Anta, PEAK, Jordan and so on less than ten large enterprises engaged in professional sports marketing, other sports brands almost advertised as "fashion sports brand".

More importantly, whether the relatively high-end high-end fashion ZARA, UNIQLO and other foreign brands, or Metersbonwe and other domestic local enterprises, will be strong competitors in the field. "Because these brands will face many thresholds when they choose to enter the professional sports field, but their thresholds in the field are relatively low."

"The embarrassment of fashion movement is that it is subjected to multiple extrusion of integrated sports and leisure and even fast fashion brands."

Ma Gang has similar views.

The so-called fashion movement, between leisure and sports, it is difficult to grasp accurately.

How to ensure that products are not replaced or marginalized by leisure brands and comprehensive sports brands is a problem that enterprises always have to face.

Even the old red Kappa was troubled.

After a long period of popularity, when the big pattern printing was no longer popular, Kappa's trend also weakened.

Even though kappa's fashion and personality still exist, its replicable personality and emotional appeal of marketing are more superficial than fashion. It can instantly jump into the streets and streets overnight, and can also be abandoned by fashion and abandoned by the public in an instant.

Another reality that has to be faced is that the fashion advocated by local fashion sports brands has been discounted to some extent.

"For local sports brands, fashion is a very general concept. Leisure is also right, life is also right; it can be either an adjective or a noun."

Ma Gang believes that the fashion movement advocated by the local sports brand is not clear in fact, and there is far from the fineness of the international bigwigs.

Taking Puma as an example, it divides the consumers according to the sensitivity of the tidal current, and then attacks the core fashion crowd from the products, to the brand story, the communication performance, and to the people who are most sensitive to the fashion trend.

In contrast, domestic enterprises, including XTEP, are more focused on the so-called popular fashion line, and have not yet seen the determination and posture to exert themselves to the core fashion crowd.

To a certain extent, "public" and "fashion" may be somewhat "twisted".

"The real fashion should be the creation and the leadership trend, and the fashion movement is in this domain, has the charm to drive the consumer.

Unfortunately, a considerable number of enterprises are just grasping the fashion trend, or catering to the trend, adding fuel to the flames, and lack of creativity.

So is XTEP.

Ma Gang said.

It can be seen that the ultimate dream of XTEP's pledge to become the "first brand of the global fashion movement" is not necessarily impossible. However, nature is not an easy task, nor is it a short-term matter.

Perhaps XTEP itself has noticed that the fashion movement is not perfect enough. In recent years, it has paid more attention to putting more eggs into more baskets.

In 2005, XTEP entered the field of sports marketing with huge sums of money. It began to break the monopoly of high-end sports events by international sports brands. It also opened XTEP's sports marketing radar, and bought huge sums of money to buy the Olympic Games license during the CCTV Olympic Games.

Even though the general direction of fashion and entertainment has not changed, XTEP has at least made an attempt to combine the two track strategy of entertainment and sports.

However, even event sponsorship seems to always play a little "entertainment" flavor.

In 2010, XTEP became the first Chinese sporting goods sponsor to enter the "fashionable" event of the Premier League, the first to eat crabs.

In fact, the competition itself has limited direct impact on XTEP.

ICBC has pointed out that Bermingham's related products account for only a small number of units in total sales of XTEP, so whether or not their downgrades will affect XTEP very much, and in the past three years, the Spanish market has fallen by 27% of the fans' consumption power. Whether XTEP can have a firm foothold in the region, occupy a good market share, and tap considerable market profits, is also not optimistic.

"The main body of our consumer group is still in China. The Spanish League has landed on CCTV. In Villarreal, we have built a platform for publicity. The aim is to win more support among the domestic consumers by sponsoring the famous teams from west Liga, so that the fans of them can have a greater sense of belonging."

Zhao Xianglin, director of XTEP activity marketing, has made such an explanation.

In other words, XTEP is not focused on overseas markets such as the Premier League or the Spanish Liga, but is bound by the trend of the domestic fans in the Premier League and the Spanish League, which in turn stimulate domestic consumers' understanding of XTEP's fashion, trend and cool.

To some extent, it has been successful for XTEP to appear in the Premier League and Spanish League as a host.

"Sports heart, fashion shape should be the direction."

Zhang Qing believes that in the long run, it is the only way to get rid of the pure fashion movement by taking sport as the core and fashion as the epitaxy. It is the right way to use the platform built by the fashion movement to build resources and give full play to the imagination and do the things that may be done by Zhang Qing.

However, the handshake on the surface does not mean that everything is fine.

On this issue, Anta has just acted as a negative textbook.

On the night of CBA decisive battle in 2012, Beijing Jinyu men's basketball team won the championship for the first time after more than 20 years, and the enthusiasm of the whole city suddenly rose.

Such a rare opportunity to communicate with consumers in an international metropolis such as Beijing, with 15 million urban population, Anta quietly fled.

"Such an opportunity, as a sponsor brand, can do something for the fans and communicate directly with consumers who are in a rush.

The fact is, I can't buy anything you want to buy at the scene. The whole 18000 consumers' T-shirts or Mastercard made it by themselves.

Anta, as a clothing seller, has no action. "

Zhang Qing revealed to the new financial reporter that many local businesses only advertised and shouted slogans, but still could not seize the real opportunity to attack consumers' vital elements.

What makes Anta even more ashamed is that on the second day of the championship, Nike put up huge advertisements in the Dongdan stadium, congratulating Beijing Jinyu men's basketball team to win the championship.

The banner of "Beijing basketball will never cease" is a great shock.

In fact, Nike is not the official sponsor of CBA, and basketball is the theme of this season.

"Whether a sporting goods brand has enough advantages in a project depends mainly on the attention of consumers, and whether consumers can think of the brand when they think about the project. This is the key to measure whether the marketing strategy is successful or not."

Ma Gang said.

In this way, although Anta has invested heavily in basketball projects, it may not necessarily grasp the real advantages.

The core of sports marketing is the key expression on key nodes.

In Zhang Qing's view, Anta's aphasia and Nike's "loopholes" reflect the endogenous differences between local enterprises and international giants.

Management challenges

No matter what Anta or other brands have to admit, the reality is that the role of advertising in brand growth can not be underestimated.

Imagine what a local sports brand would do if it stopped advertising for a year?

"Local sports brand advertising is mainly for two groups of people, one is channel distributors, two is three or four line consumers."

Zhang Qing believes that the impact of the former is mostly reflected in the activities such as the sports fair and other activities, which stimulates the confidence of the dealers. The latter is more aware of the three or four line market consumers. The "big brand" is still there. "If you need to worry about the stop of the advertising, the dealer's confidence will drop, and the lower dealers will be affected to switch to other brands, such as the Domino effect. This shows that the internal strength of the enterprise is not deep enough, and the influence of the brand itself is not strong enough."

In fact, compared with those originate from athletes or semi professional athletes such as Nike and Adidas, most Chinese enterprises lack a natural understanding of sports and lack of real motion genes.

Most of the time, peddling is just about shoes and clothes, not lifestyle, not brand names.

"The core competitiveness of an enterprise must be endogenous.

Frankly speaking, I think the core competitiveness of the local sports brand is insufficient from the brand perspective, which is mainly reflected in the understanding of the essence of sports, the lack of the ability to sport products and sports, and the lack of further integration with consumer demand.

Zhang Qing said.

Strictly speaking, most local enterprises lack the awareness and ability to dig deeper into products and projects.

XTEP's current sports marketing is mainly concentrated in three major areas, one is running, two is football, and three is a few extreme sports.

But it has only completed the first step. Next, it is necessary to explore vertically and gradually from the primary "peach picking" to a more value-added "peach tree".

Like all the other companies, XTEP has experienced several stages, such as marketing, licensing, channel expansion, listing and expansion of brand categories.

On the one hand, the brand gene is consolidated through marketing, and on the other hand, it caters to the diversified needs of consumers through product innovation.

Management needs to be changed from extensive to meticulous.

Ma Gang said.

On the basis of sponsoring running events, to get the communication between the heavy consumption crowd for running, the opinion leaders for the new running, enhance the research and development of products, and let runners wear XTEP shoes to run on their own, so that the opinion leaders can lift their competitive level with XTEP; and, as in the deep excavation of football, the firm choice is the completely entertaining football route, or the strength of professional football, rather than just being satisfied with the LOGO.

In other words, what the local sports brand really needs to do is to clarify what it promises to consumers. Then, on the product functional level and brand value level, it carries out long-term deep tillage around this commitment, so that consumers can clearly feel the brand's ideas, products and brand value, and then generate emotional connections, generate trust and loyalty.

"In a relatively less prosperous cycle, what companies do is to practise" internal strength "and preserve their strength. Then, with the development of society and the increase of consumption power, enterprises will have the chance to live better in the future competition.

Zhang Qing believes that the more listed companies, the more they can not be too entangled in the short-term performance of high growth, but should "stand in the future, live in the present".

"The combination of brand positioning, product integration and management follow-up is the hardest part of the three."

In any case, Ding Shuibo is brave enough to face XTEP's current problems.

Fortunately, XTEP seems to have consciously or unwittingly opened up.

Recently, XTEP has strengthened the professional manager team. The vice president of the newly appointed brand market comes from the excellent Procter and gamble of brand management.

The advanced methodology, system and concept, how to produce benign chemical reactions with the characteristics of the industry, is what XTEP needs to face next.

High inventory is still a stumbling block for major sports brands.

According to XTEP's 2011 Annual Report, although it has achieved good results in revenue growth, the inventory pressure of 670 million yuan is not less than that of peers.

As a result, Ding Shuibo did not hesitate to say frankly: "2012 will be more difficult than 2011", and this year's sales target will be reduced from 15% to the number of units, and the net growth of shops will also drop from 800 to 1000 last year to about 400.

XTEP's inventory pressure needs to be interpreted from two aspects.

On the one hand, XTEP's own inventory reached a pessimistic level; on the other hand, it was deeply influenced by the reverse conduction effect of the market.

The so-called reverse conduction effect, that is, Nike, Adidas and so on, in 2008 experienced an optimistic forecast that the market situation, resulting in inventory backlog phenomenon, the adoption of product prices and other ways to consume inventory.

The price reduction of the international giants accelerated Lining's vicious performance in the market, and when Lining took the same measures to save himself, the overflow river would flow to the next level of brands including XTEP, and so on, from high end to low end.

Therefore, we can see that the industry is generally struggling in the process of de stocking.

The average turnover time of XTEP's stock was 63 days. In 2010, the data was 50 days. Lining's average stock turnover period was 73 days, an increase of 21 days from the previous year; the average inventory turnover period of the 31st degree to 6 months in December 31, 2011 increased to 45 days, compared with 19 days in the same period last year.

XTEP's pressure is more than that.

At present, the domestic market can be divided into three major camps. Nike, Adidas, Lining and Anta have 4 sales of 10 billion yuan up and down under the first army; XTEP, 31st degree, PEAK, and Jordan, who are not yet officially listed on the market, and even the 3 billion -60 billion Enterprises in the future will form second groups; 1 billion -30 billion yuan will be among the third group members.

"The dilemma of the second group is that its scale is there, and it is also a listed company, which is facing both the pressure of performance growth and its growth."

Zhang Qing believes that the second group will not be able to rush into the first group in a short period of time. At least, it will last two to three years.

"And I don't think that the Chinese market can survive so many listed companies, and they are selling sporting goods. This is not sustainable."

Zhang Qing believes that the industry adjustment period has arrived.

Ma Gang also told reporters: "there will be different enterprises in the future, cut into different subdivision areas (a category or industrial chain division of labor, such as manufacturing) or different market areas, only 2-3 will become a national enterprise."

A problem which is more insurmountable but not enough for individual enterprises is the development path of China's "abnormal" sports industry.

The international common experience is that the sports noumenon, such as sports noumenon, competition and performing industry, are the most developed sports entities, followed by sports related industries, such as media industry, TV copyright trading, and so on.

The current situation in China is that the production elements of sports noumenon are not circulated, and the system and administration are not sufficiently developed. The television industry in related industries is more than CCTV alone. However, because of the huge desire for leisure and fitness in the Chinese market, the sports goods on the periphery are the most developed.

"My judgment is that China is on the eve of a great change, whether from the macro economic or social level or from the micro level of individual lifestyle."

Zhang Qingjian believed that despite the obstacles ahead, opportunities still lay before the real strong men. "The era of wartime sports goods has ended and is now in an era of separatist rule. High building, slow king and extensive grain are the secrets of this field."

That is to say, building the wall of differentiation competition, not being coercing by the capital market, not blindly pursuing the growth of performance; and having the means of realizable business, that is, the combination of brand and business and products.